Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on What Jews Believe About the Afterlife

jews believe about the afterlife that is going to be wonderful but please don't let's have it yet that is the really important thing about judaism read through the whole of tanakh the whole of the hebrew bible from beginning to end and you will find that the references to the afterlife are are almost infinitesimally small the references are there but you have really have to search for them judaism is an extraordinarily this worldly this life-focused religion and that's extraordinary because all the religions of the ancient world were religions obsessed with the afterlife that's what the great temples and pyramids of egypt are all about this life is a place of struggle and pain and all sorts of all sorts of agonies it's when you die and you go to heaven then you find serenity now judaism does not deny that but it does say if justice is to be done it's to be done down here on earth if we are to come close to god if we are to really grow as human beings if we're going to make a difference to the world and let's do it here here and now not in some other world in some other life so judaism believes that the afterlife is the place where souls after the body reaches the end of its biological existence are reunited with god it's kind of homecoming of the soul the righteous sit and are illuminated by the rays of the divine presence but judaism remains a religion which despite its belief in the afterlife is almost obsessively focused on this life and that to me makes judaism the healthiest and most life-affirming religion i know

Channel: Jewish Learning Institute

Views: 64,420

Keywords: jli, Jewish Learning Institute

Id: _ao4u1FuIOM

Length: 2min 8sec (128 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 22 2020