(8) And Abraham expired, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.
(30) Returning to his brothers, he said, “The boy is gone! Now, what am I to do?” (31) Then they took Joseph’s tunic, slaughtered a kid, and dipped the tunic in the blood. (32) They had the ornamented tunic taken to their father, and they said, “We found this. Please examine it; is it your son’s tunic or not?” (33) He recognized it, and said, “My son’s tunic! A savage beast devoured him! Joseph was torn by a beast!” (34) Jacob rent his clothes, put sackcloth on his loins, and observed mourning for his son many days. (35) All his sons and daughters sought to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, saying, “No, I will go down mourning to my son in Sheol.” Thus his father bewailed him.
(1) The LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah; and Jonah remained in the fish’s belly three days and three nights. (2) Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish. (3) He said:
In my trouble I called to the LORD,
And He answered me; From the belly of Sheol I cried out,
And You heard my voice. (4) You cast me into the depths, Into the heart of the sea,
The floods engulfed me;
All Your breakers and billows
Swept over me. (5) I thought I was driven away Out of Your sight:
Would I ever gaze again
Upon Your holy Temple? (6) The waters closed in over me,
The deep engulfed me.
Weeds twined around my head.
יִשְׁלַח לְקֵץ הַיָּמִין מְשִׁיחֵנוּ, לִפְדּות מְחַכֵּי קֵץ יְשׁוּעָתו. מֵתִים יְחַיֶּה אֵל בְּרב חַסְדּו, בָּרוּךְ עֲדֵי עַד שֵׁם תְּהִלָּתו:
Yigdal Prayer, Rambam's 13 Principles of Faith:
At the end of days, He will send our annointed, to redeem those who wait for the end [when] His salvation [takes place]. The dead will G-d resuscitate, in his abundant kindness, blessed be His praised name forever.
(2) And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to reproaches and everlasting abhorrence.
All Israel have a portion in Olam ha-Ba, the world-to-come.
Tosefta Sanhedrin 13:2
The righteous among the nations of the world will have a share in Olam ha-Ba, the world-to-come.
(טז) רַבִּי יַעֲקֹב אוֹמֵר, הָעוֹלָם הַזֶּה דּוֹמֶה לִפְרוֹזְדוֹר בִּפְנֵי הָעוֹלָם הַבָּא. הַתְקֵן עַצְמְךָ בַפְּרוֹזְדוֹר, כְּדֵי שֶׁתִּכָּנֵס לַטְּרַקְלִין:
(16) Rabbi Jacob said: this world (Olam HaZeh) is like a vestibule before the world to come (Olam HaBah); prepare yourself in the vestibule, so that you may enter the banquet hall.
(יז) הוא היה אומר, יפה שעה אחת בתשובה ומעשים טובים בעולם הזה, מכל חיי העולם הבא .ויפה שעה אחת של קורת רוח בעולם הבא, מכל חיי העולם הזה.
(17) He would say: One hour of repentance and good deeds in this world (Olam HaZeh) is better than all the time in the world to come (Olam HaBah). And one hour of pleasure in the world to come is better than all the time in this world.
אמר רבא: בשעה שמכניסין אדם לדין אומרים לו:
נשאת ונתת באמונה? קבעת עתים לתורה? עסקת בפריה ורביה? צפית לישועה? פלפלת בחכמה? הבנת דבר מתוך דבר?
Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 31a
Raba said, when a person is led in for Judgment he is asked,
Did you conduct business honestly?
Did you fix times for learning?
Did you engage in [the mitzvah of] “be fruitful and multiply”?
Did you anticipate salvation?
Did you engage in the dialectics of wisdom?
Did you understand one thing from within another?
Reb Zusha was laying on his deathbed surrounded by his disciples. He was crying and no one could comfort him. One student asked his Rebbe, "Why do you cry? You were almost as wise as Moses and as kind as Abraham." Reb Zusha answered, "When I pass from this world and appear before the Heavenly Tribunal, they won't ask me, 'Zusha, why weren't you as wise as Moses or as kind as Abraham,' rather, they will ask me, 'Zusha, why weren't you Zusha?' Why didn't I fulfill my potential, why didn't I follow the path that could have been mine!
Rabbi Eliezer said: The souls of the righteous are hidden under the Throne of Glory, as it is said, “Yet the souls of my lord shall be bound up in the bundle of life,” but those of the wicked continue to be imprisoned.
A king has a son whom he sends to a village to be educated until he shall have been initiated into the ways of the palace. When the king is informed that his son is now come to maturity, the king…sends his mother to bring him back to the palace, and there the king rejoices with him every day…The village people weep for the departure of the king’s son from among them. But one wise man said to them: Why do you weep? Was this not the king’s son, whose true place is in his father’s palace and not with you?
We reassert the doctrine of Judaism that the soul of man is immortal, grounding this belief on the divine nature of the human spirit, which forever finds bliss in righteousness and misery in wickedness.
We reject, as ideas not rooted in Judaism, the beliefs both in bodily resurrection and in Gehenna and Eden as abodes for everlasting punishment and reward.
I don’t believe in an afterlife. To me that unnecessarily clutters up expectations of life and death, because if you expect to be rewarded or punished, you are not behaving according to what you truly believe you ought to be doing in the situation. You’re expecting someone else is going to give you goodies at the end. What you’ve got is what you’ve got. It increases the poignancy. You’re given a life, you do the best you can, you do what you must do, what’s right for you, and then you wear out and you’re done.