 Judaism believes in both an afterlife and an after-afterlife. In brief: After death, the body decays and the soul enters the spiritual realm of the World to Come. In this spiritual realm, the soul awaits the reward of the good it did and receives punishment—cleansing—for all it did wrong. The period of cleansing lasts for a maximum of twelve months after which the soul basks in a state of indescribable closeness to G-d. This is the afterlife, and then comes the after-afterlife.
The after-afterlife is the Jewish belief in a future resurrection of the dead. There will come a time when the body and the soul will be reunited to live together in a highly refined spiritual state. The body, like a seed that decays and then sprouts new life will return with a new appreciation, so to speak, of the true meaning of existence and what it’s role is meant to be. The body will then be reunited with it’s long lost soul. This recreated and remarkably refined person will undergo one final and significant cleansing experience and then live a life of drawing forever closer and closer to G-d. |
