(ג) אַנְטִיגְנוֹס אִישׁ סוֹכוֹ קִבֵּל מִשִּׁמְעוֹן הַצַּדִּיק. הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, אַל תִּהְיוּ כַעֲבָדִים הַמְשַׁמְּשִׁין אֶת הָרַב עַל מְנָת לְקַבֵּל פְּרָס, אֶלָּא הֱווּ כַעֲבָדִים הַמְשַׁמְּשִׁין אֶת הָרַב שֶׁלֹּא עַל מְנָת לְקַבֵּל פְּרָס, וִיהִי מוֹרָא שָׁמַיִם עֲלֵיכֶם:
(3) Antigonos, man of Sokho, received from Shimon the Righteous. He would say, "Do not be as servants who are serving the master in order to receive a reward, rather be as servants who are serving the master not in order to receive a reward; and may the fear of Heaven be upon you."
גן העדן
Heaven
(יז) הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, יָפָה שָׁעָה אַחַת בִּתְשׁוּבָה וּמַעֲשִׂים טוֹבִים בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה, מִכָּל חַיֵּי הָעוֹלָם הַבָּא. וְיָפָה שָׁעָה אַחַת שֶׁל קוֹרַת רוּחַ בָּעוֹלָם הַבָּא, מִכָּל חַיֵּי הָעוֹלָם הַזֶּה:
(17) He [R' Yaakov] would say: One hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is better than all the time in the world to come. And one hour of pleasure in the world to come is better than all the time in this world.
בְּשַׁעְתָּא דְבַר נָשׁ אִסְתַּלַּק מֵעַלְמָא, אֲבוֹי וְּקְרֵיבוֹי מִשְׁתַּכְּחִין תַּמָּן עִמֵּיהּ, וְחָמָא לוֹן וְאִשְׁתְּמוֹדַע לוֹן, וְכָל אִינוּן דְּהֲוָה מְדוֹרֵיהּ גַּבַּיְיהוּ בְּהַהוּא עַלְמָא בְּדַרְגָּא חַד, כֻּלְּהוּ מִתְכַּנְּשֵׁי וּמִשְׁתַּכְּחֵי עִמֵּיהּ, וְאָזְלִין עִם נִשְׁמָתֵיהּ, עַד אֲתַר דְּתִשְׁרֵי בְּאַתְרֵיהּ
Zohar I, 218a
At the hour of a man’s departure from the world, his father and his relatives gather round him, and he sees them and recognizes them, and likewise all with whom he associated in this world, and they accompany his soul to the place where it is to abide.
וּפְלִיגָא דְּרַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן לָקִישׁ דְּאָמַר אֵין גֵּיהִנָּם לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא אֶלָּא הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מוֹצִיא חַמָּה מִנַּרְתִּיקָהּ צַדִּיקִין מִתְרַפְּאִין בָּהּ וּרְשָׁעִים נִידּוֹנִין בָּהּ שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר וְזָרְחָה לָכֶם יִרְאֵי שְׁמִי שֶׁמֶשׁ וְגוֹ׳ וְלֹא עוֹד אֶלָּא שֶׁמִּתְעַדְּנִין בָּהּ שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר וִיצָאתֶם וּפִשְׁתֶּם כְּעֶגְלֵי מַרְבֵּק וְהָרְשָׁעִים נִידּוֹנִין בָּהּ שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר הִנֵּה הַיּוֹם בָּא בֹּעֵר כַּתַּנּוּר וְגוֹ׳:
Abaye disagrees with the opinion of Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, who said: There is no Gehenna in the World-to-Come. Rather, the Holy Blessed One will remove the sun from its sheath [minartika], and the righteous will be healed by it and the wicked will be punished by it....
גֵּיהִנָּם
Hell
נְפַקוּ, חֲזוֹ אִינָשֵׁי דְּקָא כָּרְבִי וְזָרְעִי, אָמְרִין: מַנִּיחִין חַיֵּי עוֹלָם וְעוֹסְקִין בְּחַיֵּי שָׁעָה. כׇּל מָקוֹם שֶׁנּוֹתְנִין עֵינֵיהֶן מִיָּד נִשְׂרָף. יָצְתָה בַּת קוֹל וְאָמְרָה לָהֶם: לְהַחֲרִיב עוֹלָמִי יְצָאתֶם?! חִיזְרוּ לִמְעָרַתְכֶם! הֲדוּר אֲזוּל אִיתִּיבוּ תְּרֵיסַר יַרְחֵי שַׁתָּא. אָמְרִי: מִשְׁפַּט רְשָׁעִים בְּגֵיהִנָּם שְׁנֵים עָשָׂר חֹדֶשׁ. יָצְתָה בַּת קוֹל וְאָמְרָה: צְאוּ מִמְּעָרַתְכֶם! נְפַקוּ. כָּל הֵיכָא דַּהֲוָה מָחֵי רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר, הֲוָה מַסֵּי רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן. אָמַר לוֹ: בְּנִי, דַּי לָעוֹלָם אֲנִי וְאַתָּה.
They emerged from the cave, and saw people who were plowing and sowing. Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai said: These people abandon eternal life of Torah study and engage in temporal life for their own sustenance. The Gemara relates that every place that Rabbi Shimon and his son Rabbi Elazar directed their eyes was immediately burned. A Divine Voice emerged and said to them: Did you emerge from the cave in order to destroy My world? Return to your cave. They again went and sat there for twelve months. They said: The judgment of the wicked in Gehenna lasts for twelve months. Surely their sin was atoned in that time. A Divine Voice emerged and said to them: Emerge from your cave. They emerged. Everywhere that Rabbi Elazar would strike, Rabbi Shimon would heal. Rabbi Shimon said to Rabbi Elazar: My son, you and I suffice for the entire world, as the two of us are engaged in the proper study of Torah.
The Ramban clarifies this to mean that their nature is altered, namely the soul is burnt and returned to ash, and then the רוח האלקים - the spirit of G-d takes it and scatters it under the feet of the righteous, which means that they are now in a state of neither suffering nor punishment.
So it would seem from the Ramban that their souls are elevated albeit not to a level of 'enjoyment', but rather to a stage devoid of any further suffering.
The souls in Gehinnom ("hell") are punished for up to 12 months, then continue on to Gan Eden (Eduyot 2:10).
What do you think would be fair for our Just and Loving God to do?
What are your gut-feeling reactions to these texts?
How does this compare to other belief systems?
In the entire Torah there is not the slightest suggestion that anything happens after death. All the ideas and theories articulated on the subject of a world to come and the resurrection of the dead have no relationship to religious faith. It is sheer folklore. After you die, you simply do not exist
In Judaism the belief in afterlife is less a leap of faith than a logical outgrowth of other Jewish beliefs. If one believes in a G-d who is all-powerful and all-just, one cannot believe that this world, in which evil far too often triumphs, is the only arena in which human life exists. For if this existence is the final word, and G-d permits evil to win, then it cannot be that G-d is good. Thus, when someone says he or she believes in God but not in afterlife, it would seem that either they have not thought the issue through, or they don't believe in God, or the divine being in whom they believe is amoral or immoral.
.... Now, if a person does not completely rectify his Nefesh the first time and dies, then his Nefesh will have to reincarnate, perhaps even many times, until it is sufficiently rectified. However, since he only achieved tikun through a gilgul, even after complete rectification is achieved his Ruach will not enter. He will have to die and return in order to receive the Ruach. Furthermore, once the Ruach is sufficiently rectified, then he will also have to reincarnate before receiving a Neshama, as was the case with the Ruach...
[Kabbalists taught that] after death, the nefesh [bodily life force] stays with the body in the grave. Then, in a process that lasts from three to seven days, the soul extricates itself from the body. The more attached the nefesh was to the physical world, the more difficult and painful this separation [known as Hibbut Ha-Kever, the pains of the grave]... The nefesh shuttles between the grave and its previous home, mourning the death of its body... while the body resolves itself into dust...
The ruach [spirit, associated with intellect and morals]... is consigned to Gehinom after death... [Some teachings] suggest that the ruchot of [ethical and spiritual individuals] are spared the ordeal of Gehinom entirely... The stint in Gehinom is finite [usually no more than twelve months] unless one was terribly wicked... [After purification the ruach] ascends to the Lower Garden of Eden, [where it is cleansed and clothed in a heavenly "vestment" and is] able to enjoy... the divine emanation.
...The neshamah [the highest spiritual element of the soul, focused on Torah and divinity], being wholly good, does not need to be punished. It ascends directly to the Higher Garden of Eden, which is believed to be... [where] it came from originally. It never comes down to earth again... The Higher Garden is organized into study circles in which the soul delights itself with learning about the nature of God.
...There is one final destination for the soul.... [known as] tzeror ha-hayim [the bundle or knot of life], .... a place superior to the Higher Garden as well as a kind of divine clearinghouse for souls where they are assigned their next incarnations.
...The number of reincarnations for the purpose of purging sin is generally limited to three, based on a kabbalistic reading of Job... [Some] believed that if the soul [continued] its evil ways after three reincarnations, it would be condemned to Gehenna. Others... thought that a soul could not migrate to a new incarnation until it had been... purified... Those who believed that righteous souls also were reincarnated assigned those souls to Gan Eden for reward before they found new homes.
[This conceptualization relies in part on the Kabbalistic belief, especially in Lurianic Kabbalah, that the soul is actual an amalgam of several levels or kinds of soul, the lowest of which is common to all life, the highest of which is only attained or given to human beings-- perhaps not even all human beings. Later conceptualizations don't tend to rest on the idea of the various parts of the soul going in different directions-- they became usually thought of as more indivisible. Also the notion that a person might only have three or so gilgulim became more infrequent, and it became more common to theorize a larger but more fluid number of gilgulim.