Will Jewish people go to heaven?

Answer 1

Answer:

Judaism spends little time discussing what may or may not happen when we die, in fact, there's barely any mention of this subject in the Tanach (Jewish Bible) at all.

There are some loose theories of what might happen though:

* When we die, our souls are cleansed of any wrongdoings. This is done by our accounting of every action done in life. It's believed that this process takes no longer than 12 months but most people don't do enough bad in life to warrant it taking a full 12 months.

* Our souls return to God to wait for the world to come.

* Our souls may be reincarnated into different people so that we have additional chances to work to become closer to God.

* Those souls that choose to be truly evil in life, cannot survive the process of cleansing and cease to exist.

Answer:

One of the central beliefs of Judaism, as codified by Rambam (Maimonides), is that the soul continues to exist and is treated in accordance with the person's actions while he/she was alive. All outstanding accounts are settled after this life. Some cases illustrate this point, since this entire world wouldn't be enough to reward a Moses or punish a Hitler.

The afterlife is detailed at length in the Talmud. A full 20 pages of Talmud (Sanhedrin 90-110) are given to this subject. The afterlife is also referred to briefly in Torah (Bible) verses such as Genesis 15:15, which states that "You (Abraham) will come to your fathers in peace and will be buried in good (ripe; full) old age." This does not mean merely to be buried with one's forefathers, since Abraham was not buried with them. Such verses are stated many times.

The prophets are more explicit with such references (such as Isaiah 26:19, Daniel 12:13).

The Tanakh does not delve into detail of the rewards of the righteous, because other religions could compete with even more poetic promises. Also because belief in the afterlife was shared by all ancient societies and needed little reiteration. See the Kli Yakar commentary to Leviticus ch. 26 for a fuller discussion.

Answer:

This physical world is a shadow mirror of the next non-physical world. We all go to the same non-physical world when we die in this life. Just as there are many forms of life here, there are many forms of human souls there. Baha'i scripture states that at death we are given the form that best suits our immortality. Our motives and actions here will have some impact on what form we will have there. Very selfish, self-centered individuals without many spiritual virtues will have a minimal form and not be able to function very much.

Souls who in this life have been very generous, thoughtful, kind, loving, self-sacrificing, etc. will have many spiritual virtues and will have a form to enable them to do many things.

So, the question becomes: do you want to be a spiritual rock in the next world? Or, do you want to be a powerful, functional spiritual being? The choice is yours by your motivations and actions here and now.