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AFTERLIFE IN JUDAISM.   Term Paper ID:25479 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Evolution of religion's teachings on life of soul, Garden of Eden, immortality.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Evolution of religion's teachings on life of soul, Garden of Eden, immortality. Paper Introduction: Religions have differing views of the meaning of life and of the idea of reward for good and moral living. Some form of afterlife is often described in religious belief, but what form that takes differs according to the theology involved. The degree of emphasis placed on the afterlife will also vary. The idea of the afterlife may change through the history of a given religions as well, and different theological interpretations will be offered through that history and shape how the afterlife is viewed by followers. Judaism is an ancient religion that has been shaped by numerous commentators and historical events, and the idea of the afterlife in Judaism has undergone a transformation as well. In general, Judaism is differentiated from Christianity on this issue in terms of where the emphasis is placed, as Abba Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. However, the idea of the resurrection gained ground among Jewishpeople toward the beginning of the common era, once Christianity hadestablished itself, and at this time an otherworldly interpretation of thekingdom of God spread. Those who have committed evil will not live tosee this day because they are unworthy. A fourth group believed that the reward wouldcome in physical contentment, "marked by our achieving in this world allworldly desires such as fertile land, abundant wealth, many children, goodphysical health, peace, security, government by a Jewish king, anddomination of our enemies" (Finkel 22 ). Toward the beginning of the common era, this changed not as aspiritual evolution in Judaism but because the leaders could not standagainst poplar pressure: The belief was finally sanctioned because it could no longer be ignored or minimized. Jews must affirm itfive times within the second prayer of the Amidah and in many other placesin the liturgy: They taught that there is more than just this world, that there is a world-to-come, in which God will bring justice and bliss to those who suffer in this life. In Talmudic tradition, the Garden ofEden was identified with Mount Zion. The Mishneh Torah was a threat to the Talmudic tradition inthat it offered its own interpretation of what the Talmud was intended toexplain. After this book, Maimonides and the Talmud became synonymous: He digested the Talmud with such precision that within fourteen volumes he packed all the important Gemara precepts and laws. In general, Judaism is differentiated from Christianity on this issuein terms of where the emphasis is placed, as Abba Hillel Silver notes whenhe writes, The Kingdom of God--which mankind with the help of God is to build--is in Judaism's view definitely of this world, and all of man's tasks are centered here. In Christianity, it means the Future World--the Hereafter (Silver 268).Jesus stated that His Kingdom "is not of this world" (John 18:36), and indoing so he correctly defined his gospel. There are three principal tenets in the Jewish prayer book: 1)the love of learning--Jews long ago had a system of compulsory education,and education is a responsibility of the Jewish community; 2) the worshipof God--Jews are taught that God is to be worshiped out of love and not outof fear; and 3) good deeds--Good deeds are those that come from the heart,and no one is exempt from obligations to his fellow human beings. The above is thereligious definition, but there is also a cultural definition in that a Jewis one who considers himself a Jew or is so regarded by the community.Judaism in any case holds that mankind can most genuinely worship God byimitating those qualities considered godly, such as mercy, justice, andtolerance. For Judaism, though, the Kingdomof God refers to the reign of God on earth, "to the conversion of allpeoples to faith in Him alone, and to the establishment of universaljustice and peace" (Silver 268). The work of Maimonides threatened aspects of Talmudic tradition notby challenging them but by explaining them, providing what was needed atthe time, which was "a more complete but simplified, modernized, abridged,and indexed Talmud which any literature man could use as a reference book"(Dimont 182-183). The idea of the afterlife may change through the historyof a given religions as well, and different theological interpretationswill be offered through that history and shape how the afterlife is viewedby followers. It had gained the upper hand. Because both Mount Zion andthe coming era were identified with the Garden of Eden at a time when thereconstruction of the Temple on Zion was also central to the vision of thatfuture age, it was logical to see the names and epithets of the temple asreference to the coming era, the era of bliss that would follow thepresent. Religions in America. Religions have differing views of the meaning of life and of the ideaof reward for good and moral living. Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson, 1994.Levenson, Jon D. Chicago: Winston Press, 1985.Riemer, Jack. Works CitedDimont, Max I. Maimonides, however, say this Temple/world-to-come as a presentreality and not simply a future state, as when he writes: That which the rabbis called "the world to come" was not called thus because it is not in existence now, and this world is perishing, and so the world-to-come will follow it. It included the idea of the resurrected dead.However, this interpretation never displaced the original prophetic elementin Judaism's vision of the Kingdom of God. Ithad to be adapted to new conditions as the Jewish world expanded and to fitchanging conditions of life, all with the purpose of assuring the survivalof Jewish ideals. Rabbis used the term Kingdom ofGod as a metaphor for "the true religion" (Silver 269). The Pharisaic leaders of Judaism were accordingly less hospitable to these popular longings (Silver 273). The fifth group was in the majority and"combined these various opinions" so that they could see their reward inthe Messiah, who would resurrect the dead, place them in the Garden ofEden, and allow them to "eat and drink and live in good health forever"(Finkel 22 ). They called it "the world-to-come" only because that type of life comes to a man after the life of this world, in which we exist in body and soul (Levenson 183).Maimonides thus interprets the temple/world-to-come as having a spatialrather than an exclusively temporal relationship to this world. In theMishneh Torah, then, the Sabbath is also seen as a glimpse of the eternallife of the coming age and not simply ordinary life prolonged indefinitely. The idea of the afterlife in a general sense persists inJudaic belief, but many do not have a clear sense of its meaning or ofwhich kind of afterlife is involved. And post-Talmudic Judaism continued this affirmation down through the centuries in two main streams. But for both schools of thought it was clear that this belief was central to Jewish self-understanding (Riemer 31 ). The treasures buried with King Tut would have been more than enough to feed a whole province of Egypt for years. Much of the Egyptian religion wasdirected at providing for the individual in the afterlife, and the waypharaohs were buried with their possessions shows that this was the case: The Israelites who left Egypt were appalled by all the opulence that was made only for the grave. The rationalists, the medieval Jewish philosophers, expounded this doctrine in one way and the Kabbalists, the mystics, expounded it in a different way. Jews, God and History. Some form of afterlife is oftendescribed in religious belief, but what form that takes differs accordingto the theology involved. Maimonides did encourage the survivalof the Temple in Jewish consciousness as a promise for the future and as acontemporary reality. However, as Abba Hillel Silver notes, Judaism as embodied in thebible "does not rest upon the dogmas of resurrection and immortality"(Silver 269), for these are not key ideas with the Hebrew prophets: For a thousand years throughout Judaism's greatest creative period, these beliefs were not regarded as essential doctrines, though they were undoubtedly entertained by some, principally in the latter days of the Second Commonwealth, and more particularly by Jews living amidst powerful alien influences beyond the borders of Judea (Silver 269-27 ). Wrestling with the Angel. And this is why the Torah that was given to the people who left Egypt is so reticent about afterlife, so totally different in tone and content from the Egyptian Book of the Dead or the other sacred writings of Egyptian society (Riemer 3 9). He entitled his codification of the Talmud the MishnehTorah, or the "Second Torah," and he used the title to remind the readersof his book "that its authority still rested on the Five Books of Moses"(Dimont 183). The final sanction was made easier by the fact that the dangers to monotheism among the Jewish people and the fear of their relapse into idolatry had greatly diminished during the Second Commonwealth, after the Maccabean victory. In the period prior to the rise of Christianity, the idea of theafterlife was widespread among the people but not accepted by theleadership. Rather, it is in existence now, as the Bible says, "which you have made," etc. Maimonides commented on the different groups that offered ideas aboutthe afterlife. In Judaism, the Kingdom of God means the Good Society. Jewsbelieve in the immortality of the soul, but the nature of this immortalityis known only to God. New York: Schocken, 1995.Rosten, Leo. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963.Silver, Abba Hillel. The issue is made more clear in pot-biblical Judaism as the sagesexpressed their faith in resurrection in clear terms. Sinai & Zion. Where Judaism Differs. New York: Collier, 1956.----------------------- 8 Maimonides connected the two civilizations of Islam and Christianity,and he also restored "Prophetic Judaism as a spiritual lifeline to theJews" (Dimont 183). In the twelfth century, the philosopher Maimonidesopposed the idea of rewards and punishments for behavior and said that thereward for virtuous living is in the good life itself (Rosten 1 4-1 5). Talmudism began in fifth-century Persia and spread through otherparts of the Jewish world. Maimonides differed with the Talmudic scholars of his time on severalpoints which created disputes and raised criticism of his book as a threatto important traditions, though in the long run, the Mishneh Torah wasaccepted over the older traditions. Yet, the issue is not always that clear, and indeed even thequestions of who is a Jew has remained one that is continually argued. Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, or Maimonides, provided theneeded book. A recent survey, however, indicates that while the idea of theafterlife is prevalent among Jews, the nature of that afterlife is a matterof uncertainty, and respondent showed "a diffuse understanding of thetradition on matters; a range of belief and disbelief in the hereafter--theodd combination of remoteness and immediacy, ambivalence and affirmation"(Riemer 318). In the Old Testament, there is barely any mention of an afterlife.The Bible at that point was given to the Israelites who came out of Egypt,and the Bible was then a counter to the entire death-centered culture ofEgypt as the people of israel saw it. Judaism is an ancient religion that has been shaped bynumerous commentators and historical events, and the idea of the afterlifein Judaism has undergone a transformation as well. One group saw the reward in a Garden of Eden, "a placewhere people eat and drink without physical exertion and hard work" (Finkel219). AJew is on who accepts the faith of Judaism, and yet the issue of what is aJew is considered a difficult one to determine finally. It had the function of "cementing the Jews intoa unified religious body and a cohesive civic community" (Dimont 176). New York: Mentor, 1994.Finkel, Avraham Yaakov. The Essential Maimonides. This group also had a vision of a place of punishment, Gehenna, "aplace of blazing fires where bodies burn and people suffer all sorts ofagonies and torments that would take too long to enumerate" (Finkel 219).The second group saw the reward in the coming of the Messiah, "when allhuman beings will be transformed into angels, becoming numerous, powerful,and immortal" (Finkel 219). The degree of emphasis placed on the afterlifewill also vary. The rabbis then termed the coming era as the "Gardenof Eden," for "they saw protology as a prefigurement of eschatology, as didtheir biblical predecessors" (Levenson 183). Punishment would be the oppositeof these kinds of things. A third group believed in theresurrection of the dead, and in this view, evildoers are punished becausethey never return to life. They do not any longer accept the literal idea ofheaven and hell, however, though here was a time when that was a part ofJewish theology. He also attacked superstitions, and interpreted miracles rationally (Dimont 183).However, his reach was not quite as great as it might have been because ofthe style he used: Maimonides was an intellectual snob, however, who deliberately wrote only for the learned, feeling that nobody else would understand him; but he wrote with the beauty and clarity of a great novelist, and made even the most complex reasoning seem simple (Dimont 184). 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