שכן כתוב בספר בן סירא במופלא ממך אל תדרוש ובמכוסה ממך אל תחקור במה שהורשית התבונן אין לך עסק בנסתרות
From the Talmud
So it is written in the book of Ben Sira; Do not study what is beyond you; Do not research what is covered from you. Contemplate the realm that is permitted to you. You have no business with the hidden.
Important Terms:
.
נשמה Neshamah
נפש Nefesh
רוח Ruach
.
עולם הזה Olam HaZeh
עולם הבא Olam HaBah
שאול Sheol
גיהינום Gehenom
.
ימות המשיח Yemot HaMashiach
אחרית הימים Acharit HaYamim
תחית המתים Techiyat HaMetim
Souls in the Torah:
(7) Ado-nai God formed the human from the dust of the earth. He blew into his nostrils the neshamah of life, and the human became a living nefesh.
(22) All in whose nostrils was nishmat ruach chayim, of all that was on dry land, died.
(23) But make sure that you do not partake of the blood; for the blood is the nefesh, and you must not consume the nefesh with the flesh.
A prominent biblical thread denies the concept of an afterlife:
(ז) כִּ֤י יֵ֥שׁ לָעֵ֗ץ תִּ֫קְוָ֥ה אִֽם־יִ֭כָּרֵת וְע֣וֹד יַחֲלִ֑יף וְ֝יֹֽנַקְתּ֗וֹ לֹ֣א תֶחְדָּֽל׃ (ח) אִם־יַזְקִ֣ין בָּאָ֣רֶץ שָׁרְשׁ֑וֹ וּ֝בֶעָפָ֗ר יָמ֥וּת גִּזְעֽוֹ׃ (ט) מֵרֵ֣יחַ מַ֣יִם יַפְרִ֑חַ וְעָשָׂ֖ה קָצִ֣יר כְּמוֹ־נָֽטַע׃ (י) וְגֶ֣בֶר יָ֭מוּת וַֽיֶּחֱלָ֑שׁ וַיִּגְוַ֖ע אָדָ֣ם וְאַיּֽוֹ׃ (יא) אָֽזְלוּ־מַ֭יִם מִנִּי־יָ֑ם וְ֝נָהָ֗ר יֶחֱרַ֥ב וְיָבֵֽשׁ׃ (יב) וְאִ֥ישׁ שָׁכַ֗ב וְֽלֹא־יָ֫ק֥וּם עַד־בִּלְתִּ֣י שָׁ֭מַיִם לֹ֣א יָקִ֑יצוּ וְלֹֽא־יֵ֝עֹ֗רוּ מִשְּׁנָתָֽם׃
(7) There is hope for a tree; If it is cut down it will renew itself; Its shoots will not cease. (8) If its roots are old in the earth, And its stump dies in the ground, (9) At the scent of water it will bud And produce branches like a sapling. (10) But a person dies and withers; Man expires; where is he? (11) As water vanishes from a lake, And the river dries up and is parched. (12) So man lies down never to rise; He will not arise when the heavens are no more, he will not be awakened from his sleep.
(17) The dead cannot praise God, nor any who go down into silence.
But the idea was not unknown:
- Saul, Samuel and the woman of Endor
(19) For in respect of the fate of a person and the fate of beast, they have one and the same fate: as the one dies so dies the other, and both have the same lifebreath; the person has no superiority over beast, since both amount to nothing. (20) Both go to the same place; both came from dust and both return to dust. (21) Who knows if a person's lifebreath does rise upward and if a beast’s breath does sink down into the earth? (22) I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy his possessions, since that is his portion. For who can enable him to see what will happen afterward?
A new idea at the end of the biblical period (second-first century BCE):
The Mishnah, from the beginning of the Common Era to 200CE:
(טז) רַבִּי יַעֲקֹב אוֹמֵר, הָעוֹלָם הַזֶּה דּוֹמֶה לִפְרוֹזְדוֹר בִּפְנֵי הָעוֹלָם הַבָּא. הַתְקֵן עַצְמְךָ בַפְּרוֹזְדוֹר, כְּדֵי שֶׁתִּכָּנֵס לַטְּרַקְלִין:
(16) Rabbi Jacob said: this world is like a vestibule before the world to come; prepare yourself in the vestibule, so that you may enter the banqueting-hall.
(א) כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל יֵשׁ לָהֶם חֵלֶק לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (ישעיה ס) וְעַמֵּךְ כֻּלָּם צַדִּיקִים לְעוֹלָם יִירְשׁוּ אָרֶץ נֵצֶר מַטָּעַי מַעֲשֵׂה יָדַי לְהִתְפָּאֵר.
(1) All Israel have a portion in the world to come, for it says, “Your people, all of them righteous, shall possess the land for ever; They are the shoot that I planted, my handiwork in which I glory” (Isaiah 60:2.
Talmudic Era (200-600CE):
כי מתער אומר אלקי נשמה שנתת בי טהורה אתה יצרתה בי אתה נפחתה בי ואתה משמרה בקרבי ואתה עתיד ליטלה ממני ולהחזירה בי לעתיד לבא כל זמן שהנשמה בקרבי מודה אני לפניך ה' אלקי ואלקי אבותי רבון כל העולמים אדון כל הנשמות ברוך אתה ה' המחזיר נשמות לפגרים מתים
From the Talmud, and included in the prayer book
When one awakens, recite:
My God, the soul You have placed within me is pure. You formed it within me,
You breathed it into me, and You guard it within me. One day You will take it from me, and restore it to me in the time to come. As long as the soul is within me, I thank You, my God and God of my ancestors, Master of all worlds, Lord of all souls. Blessed are You, God, who restores souls to lifeless bodies.
אמר ליה אנטונינוס לרבי גוף ונשמה יכולין לפטור עצמן מן הדין כיצד גוף אומר נשמה חטאת שמיום שפירשה ממני הריני מוטל כאבן דומם בקבר ונשמה אומרת גוף חטא שמיום שפירשתי ממנו הריני פורחת באויר כצפור אמר ליה אמשול לך משל למה הדבר דומה למלך בשר ודם שהיה לו פרדס נאה והיה בו....
Antoninos, the Roman emperor, said to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi: The body and the soul are able to exempt themselves from judgment for their sins. How so? The body says: The soul sinned, as from the day of my death when it departed from me, I am cast like a silent stone in the grave, and do not sin. And the soul says: The body sinned, as from the day that I departed from it, I am flying in the air like a bird, incapable of sin. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to him: I will tell you a parable. To what is this matter comparable? It is comparable to a king of flesh and blood who had a fine orchard, and in it there were fine first fruits of a fig tree, and he stationed two guards in the orchard, one lame, who was unable to walk, and one blind. Neither was capable of reaching the fruit on the trees in the orchard without the assistance of the other. The lame person said to the blind person: I see fine first fruits of a fig tree in the orchard; come and place me upon your shoulders. I will guide you to the tree, and we will bring the figs to eat them. The lame person rode upon the shoulders of the blind person and they brought the figs and ate them. Sometime later the owner of the orchard came to the orchard. He said to the guards: The fine first fruits of a fig tree that were in the orchard, where are they? The lame person said: Do I have any legs with which I would be able to walk and take the figs? The blind person said: Do I have any eyes with which I would be able to see the way to the figs? What did the owner of the orchard do? He placed the lame person upon the shoulders of the blind person just as they did when they stole the figs, and he judged them as one.
חגיגה ט’ז
כי נח נפשיה דאחר אמרי לא מידן לידייניה ולא לעלמא דאתי ליתי לא מידן לידייניה משום דעסק באורייתא ולא לעלמא דאתי ליתי משום דחטא אמר ר"מ מוטב דלידייניה וליתי לעלמא דאתי מתי אמות ואעלה עשן מקברו כי נח נפשיה דר' מאיר סליק קוטרא מקבריה דאחר
Talmud Chagigah 15b
When Aher’s soul came to rest, they said: “He will not be judged and he will not enter the next world.” He will not be judged – because he studied Torah. And he will not enter the next world – because he sinned.
Rabbi Meir said: “Better that he should be judged (though the judgment may be harsh, but then afterwards he will be freed) and enter the next world. When I die, I will bring up smoke from his grave.” When Rabbi Meir’s soul came to rest, smoke rose up from Aher’s grave.
Rabbi Yochanan said: “Is this heroism, to burn your master? We had one amongst us (namely Aher) and we can’t find a way to save him?” When Rabbi Yochanan’s soul came to rest, the smoke from Aher’s grave stopped. The eulogizer said of Rabbi Yochanan: “Even the guardian of the gate did not stand before you, our master.”
מרגלא בפומיה דרב [לא כעולם הזה העולם הבא] העולם הבא אין בו לא אכילה ולא שתיה ולא פריה ורביה ולא משא ומתן ולא קנאה ולא שנאה ולא תחרות אלא צדיקים יושבין ועטרותיהם בראשיהם ונהנים מזיו השכינה שנאמר (שמות כד, יא) ויחזו את האלקים ויאכלו וישתו:
From the Talmud
Rav used to say: The world to come is not like this world. In the world to come, there is no eating, drinking, procreation, business dealings, jealousy, hatred, or competition. Rather, the righteous sit with their crowns on theirs heads and enjoy the splendor of God.
אמר ליה ומי ידעי כולי האי והא כתיב והמתים אינם יודעים מאומה אמר ליה אם קרית לא שנית אם שנית לא שלשת אם שלשת לא פירשו לך כי החיים יודעים שימותו אלו צדיקים שבמיתתן נקראו חיים שנאמר ובניהו בן יהוידע בן איש חי רב פעלים מקבצאל הוא הכה את שני אראל מואב והוא ירד והכה את הארי בתוך הבור ביום השלג
Rabbi Yonatan said to him: Do the dead know so much? Isn’t it stated: “And the dead know nothing” (Ecclesiastes 9:5)? Rabbi Ḥiyya said to him: If you read the verse, you did not read it a second time, and if you read it a second time, you did not read it a third time, and if you read it a third time, they did not explain it to you properly. The meaning of the verse: For the living know that they will die, these are the righteous, who even in their death are called living...“The dead know nothing.” These are the wicked, who even during their lives are called dead
Maimonides, 12th C. Hakdamah l'Perek Chelek
You should know that just like the blind person does not grasp appearance of colors and the deaf person does not grasp the sound of voices and the eunuch sexual desire, so too bodies do not grasp spiritual pleasures. And just like the fish do not know the element of fire, since they are in the element of water, which is its opposite; so too, in this physical world, pleasures of the spiritual world are not known....
Olam HaBah: "Cannot be understood with physical senses", "Is the ultimate purpose," "our souls will fathom there the knowledge of the Creator"
Yemot HaMashiach: "Nothing about reality will change from what it is like today, except that the kingship will return to Israel."
In the wake of a human being’s death, what survives is a set of afterglows, some brighter and some dimmer, in the collective brains of all those who were dearest to them. And when those people in turn pass on, the afterglow becomes extremely faint. And when that outer layer in turn passes into oblivion, then the afterglow is feebler still, and after a while there is nothing left.
This slow process of extinction I’ve just described, though gloomy, is a little less gloomy than the standard view. Because bodily death is so clear, so sharp, and so dramatic, and because we tend to cling to the caged-bird view, death strikes us as instantaneous and absolute, as sharp as a guillotine blade. Our instinct is to believe that the light has all at once gone out altogether. I suggest that this is not the case for human souls, because the essence of a human being — truly unlike the essence of a mosquito or a snake or a bird or a pig — is distributed over many a brain. It takes a couple of generations for a soul to subside, for the flickering to cease, for all the embers to burn out. Although “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” may in the end be true, the transition it describes is not so sharp as we tend to think.