The afterlife in Judaism

IT'S COMPLICATED: What is the Jewish afterlife like? From dark netherworld populated by ghosts to reincarnation to multiple souls: The Jewish concept of the afterlife has been to hell and back. (Elon Gilad, Haaretz).

There's a Jewish joke that says there's no Heaven or Hell: we all go to the same place when we die, where Moses and Rabbi Akiva give constant and everlasting classes on the Bible and the Talmud. For the righteous this is eternal bliss, while for the wicked this is eternal suffering.

But that's a joke. What do Jews actually believe happens to them after death?

There is no simple answer: at different times and in different places, Jews had different ideas. These varying thoughts were never reconciled or canonically decided. Thus, even today, Jews believe in different, often irreconcilable, theories of what life after death is like.

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This or that detail could be tweaked or added (for example, there is some evidence that Philo of Alexandria believed in reincarnation), but overall this is a good summary of the history of beliefs about the afterlife in Judaism.

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