What do Jews believe about the afterlife? TB Berachot 15

“What do Jews believe about the afterlife?” was the question a Northampton, MA ecumenical church study group asked. My friend and colleague Rabbi Ed Friendman couldn’t lead the session about Judaism so he asked me to take his place. Like many other theologial questions there is no one Jewish answer to what Jews believe about heaven and hell..

Thw authors of the Bible didn’t know of an afterlife at all. The dead go to a place called Sheol. We’re not sure what happened there in that hollowed out space except “The dead can not praise the Lord, nor any who go down in silence. But we (meaning the living) will bless the Lord now and forever. (Psalm 115: 17-8)

Rabbinic Judaism introduced the idea of the world to come and gehenom (Hell). There are as many ideas as there are rabbis. Certainly Rambam has a different concept of heaven and hell than the kabbalists and modern liberal theologians. Rabbi Rifat Sonsino wrote a wonderful book “What Happens After I die?” which discusses all the possibilities. You could check ot Louis Jacobs book “A Jewish Theology.” You might be interested in Rabbi Neil Gillman’s book “The Death of Death: Ressurection and the Immortality of the Soul.”

Back to my story. I stood quietly thinking how I was going to explain the plethora of ideas about Jewish ideas of the afterlife. I began saying that “There are lots of concepts of heaven and hell because nobody has ever died and come back”. Looking out at all those Christians I emmened my statement saying that “Nobody we know…. “Thank God, they laughed.

Apparently the rabbis in the Talmud had different views whether they could find a reference to the afterlife in the Torah In today’s daf TB Berachot 15b I found this discussion:

“Incidental to citing one statement by this combination of Sages, the Gemara cites another statement in their name: And Rabbi Tavi said that Rabbi Yoshiya said: What is meant by that which is written: “There are three that are never satisfied…the grave and the barren womb” (Proverbs 30:15–16)? We have to ask: What does a grave have to do with a womb? Rather, this juxtaposition comes to tell you: Just as a womb takes in and gives forth, so too a grave takes in and gives forth with the resurrection of the dead. And is this not an a fortiori inference: Just as the fetus is placed into the womb in private, and the baby is removed from it with loud cries at childbirth; the grave into which the deceased is placed with loud cries of mourning at burial, is it not right that the body should be removed with loud cries? From this verse there is a refutation to those who say that there is no Torah source for the resurrection of the dead.” (Sefaria.com translation)

What do I believe? I believe what Dr. Louis Finklestein, former Chancellor of JTS, said once, “If there is heaven, wonderful. If there isn’t, I can learn to live without it.”