Lesson video

Hi everyone.

My name is Rabbi London.

Today, we're going to talk about Jewish views of the afterlife.

This lesson, we're going to talk about Jewish views of the afterlife and Jewish rituals around death and mourning.

If this is a sensitive topic for you, we recommend checking with a trusted adult before starting or doing the lesson, with a trusted adult nearby.

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Today, you're going to need to have some pen and paper or something to write on and something to write with.

And please try to find a place where you're going to have the least amount of distraction.

If you're.

Ready, continue.

And if not, press pause to get all the things that you might need to be able to participate fully today.

As I said, in today's lesson, we are going to learn about some Jewish ideas about the afterlife or what happens when someone dies.

And then we're going to learn about some Jewish rituals surrounding death and mourning.

Today, you're going to need to have with you a pen or pencil and some paper, or something to write on, or with.

Make sure, if you don't have those things with you yet, feel free to press pause and press play when you're ready to begin.

So the afterlife.

Well, the afterlife means that there's a belief or, in this case, there's a Jewish belief that there is life after death, that the soul lives on after a body might die.

Much of what's spoken about, about the afterlife is not in Tanakh, it's not in the five books of Moses or in the Prophets or Writings.

It's mostly in later writings.

There are two places, sort of, places where a soul might go when a body dies.

So one is called Gan Eden, which usually gets, sounds similar and is the same as the Garden of Eden and sometimes gets translated as heaven or is, I see it as the Good Place, where a person goes when they did good.

And then there's also the idea of Gehenna or the Bad Place, or in some translations, hell.

One idea about what happens after a person dies within Judaism is that a person will be judged for what they were doing on this earth, whether they were doing good or whether they were doing bad.

In some ideas of what Gehenna is, it's a place where one is going to repent for any of the bad things that they did.

And in order to get ready to go into Gan Eden, in most Jewish literature, there's also this concept of the world to come.

And it says in the Mishnah, in one of the tractates, one of the sections called Sanhedrin, "All of Israel has a place in the world to come." The word for world to come, or words, in Hebrew are Olam Ha'Bah, literally means the world to come, what's going to be next.

There's a debate about how this word is used, these words are used, and in some opinions, this word gets, sometimes, this word gets used to refer to where a soul goes after death.

That's Olam Ha'Bah, which is going to be the same as Gan Eden, but sometimes Olam Ha'Bah means to the time that the Mashiach comes, the Messiah comes, when everything's going to be good and perfect.

So the rabbis of the Talmud taught that those who follow the laws of God will have a place in the world to come.

And there's also a teaching that the rabbis taught that this world, the world that all of us are living in right now is the place to prepare for the world to come, which is why one is supposed to be doing good work here, whether that is following in God's laws or doing good deeds or helping other people.

All of this, in one Jewish opinion, is to prepare a person for the world to come or whatever that place might be.

Olam Ha'Bah, or the world to come is seen as a time when everything is going to be peaceful and good.

There isn't going to be war, there isn't going to be hunger, there isn't going to be illness.

And the rabbis talk about that in the world to come, all the questions that anyone has that can't be answered will also be answered.

So it's a time seen as a time of clarity and understanding.

So before we continue, please write a definition of the following terms. Olam Ha'Bah, Gan Eden, and Gehenna.

To do this, pause your video, and write, and then when you're finished, press play to continue.

Here are my answers.

Olam Ha'Bah is the world to come, and this means either/or, actually both, the time of the Mashiach, or what happens after a person dies.

Gan Eden, or the Good Place, or the Garden of Eden, and sometimes gets translated as heaven is the place where a soul goes to when they have done good.

And it's where everything, according to Jewish tradition is good.

And Gehenna or the Bad Place, sometimes this place gets translated as hell or a place where a soul will go if they were doing bad.

Many Jewish opinions are that a soul won't stay in Gehenna for very long.

One opinion is that it won't, a soul won't stay there for more than 12 months, until they're ready to go up to Gan Eden.

So this world to come, when we were learning about the 13 Principles of Faith written by my Maimonides, one of the principles was that a Jewish person should believe that the Mashiach, the Messiah will come.

We don't know when, a Jewish person doesn't know when that will happen, but it's about the belief that there will be a time when the Messiah comes.

Some people, some Jewish people believe that God is only going to judge a person or their soul when the Messiah comes.

Some people believe that God judges the soul as soon as a person dies.

So according to this, according to some, this is when the resurrection of the dead, which means that the bringing together of the body and the soul will happen.

So when a body dies, the body will get buried and the soul goes to whatever aspect of Olam Ha'Bah it goes to, and during the time of the resurrection of the dead, which will happen during the time of the Messiah, the body of the soul will once again be put together.

According to some opinions, it's during this time that souls will receive reward or punishment based on how they lived.

According to other opinions, that happens as soon as a person dies.

Jewish people believe in doing good in this world.

In the book of, in one of the sections of the Mishnah called Ethics of our Fathers, the rabbis teach, "Do not be like a servant "who only serves their master in order to receive reward." This means that a person shouldn't do good to the world, just because they're going to get a reward in the world to come.

A person should try to do good in the world because it's what's right, or it's what's good.

Judaism teaches that what is most important is how a person lives their lives.

What happens after death is left to God to decide and something that humans can't really understand.

Good deeds need to be done, but they should not be done for reward.

Okay, we're going to pause now.

Please answer the following questions in complete sentences.

What is meant by the term afterlife? And two, describe the Jewish teachings of the afterlife.

Pause the video to complete your task and resume once you're finished.

How's this going for you? These are pretty tricky topics, and sometimes they're hard to grapple with, or to come to understand.

So what does it mean by the term afterlife? Afterlife refers to the belief in life after death.

Many Jewish people believe after the death of the physical body, the soul will go to Gan Eden or Gehenna, depending on how they lived on earth And describe the Jewish teachings of the afterlife.

Although the the Tanakh gives very little information about the afterlife, Jews believe that death is not the end and that all humans have a soul that will live on into the afterlife.

Most Jews believe that when you die, God will judge a person's soul.

Those who lived good lives will be rewarded, and those who sinned will be punished.

Some Jewish people believe that all people will eventually go to Gan Eden or Olam Ha'Bah.

So we spoke a little bit about what is the Jewish belief of what happens after a person dies? Now, we're going to look at what happens when a person is dying and what happens here on this earth when a person dies.

What are some of the rituals or customs that Jewish people have surrounding death and dying, and mourning? When a person is dying, there is a Jewish tradition that either the dying person or someone near them, maybe a relative, or maybe just someone else who happens to be in the room, will say a prayer called the Vidui.

Vidui means confession.

And it's in this prayer that a person's going to ask forgiveness for anything they might have done wrong in this world, both towards other humans and to not following God's law or anything else they feel like they need to ask forgiveness for.

The prayer has aspects of the Yom Kippur prayer of asking for forgiveness, and then some psalms. And the final line of the Vidui prayer is the Sh'ma, that the prayer that we spoke about earlier on, declaring that God is one.

So why do we do a funeral? Funerals can be important because of many different things for many different people.

Funerals can show respect to the person who died, giving them honour, talking about them.

In some religions, they include ceremonies that are believed necessary to help the soul move to wherever they believe is next, what happens after this world.

In some opinions, and for some people, a funeral gives relatives and friends time to mourn and grieve formally.

It gives them a structure of how to deal with some of the feelings they are feeling, such as sadness or anger or hurt.

And funerals and other mourning rituals allow a person to have structure or even people, other people to talk to about what are they feeling during this time.

A Jewish funeral traditionally happens as soon as possible after death.

There is an idea in many Jewish writings that a soul can't move anywhere until the body is buried and a person doesn't want to cause any more harm to that soul.

So one wants to bury a body as soon as possible, but before a body is buried, a Jewish person's body is ritually washed.

So it's washed in a special way by a group of people called the Chevra Kadisha.

The Chevra Kadisha are members of a Jewish community that learn this special way of washing and preparing a body for the funeral.

The body in general is wrapped in simple white shrouds, usually some linen cloth, and men, and in some communities, women, are buried, are wrapped in their tallit, their prayer shawl.

Although when they're buried in their tallit, the fringes, the tassels that hang at the end, and we're going to talk more about the importance of a tallis, are cut off, showing that they are no longer required to do the mitzvot, the commandments that are here on earth.

The body is then put into a simple wood coffin and the immediate family, meaning the parents, the siblings, the children, the spouses, will do a ritual called kriah, which means to tear.

They're going to tear part of their shirt or a ribbon.

And this is done to show the sadness and grief that they're feeling of the loss of the person.

Let's go over a little bit of what we've learned so far.

What does the term kriah refer to? Is it a type of Jewish prayer, the group who helps prepare a body for burial, the period of mourning lasting seven days following burial, or the ritual of tearing one's clothing as a sign of grief? Kriah refers to the ritual of tearing one's clothing as a sign of grief.

Who are the Chevra Kadisha? The people who are trained in preparing a body for burial, a group of religious leaders, the Hebrew term for mourners, the people who dig graves? The Chevra Kadisha are the people who are trained in preparing a body for burial.

What is the Vidui prayer? The prayer said to welcome in Shabbat, the prayer when learning Torah, the prayer said at the end of life, asking for forgiveness for anything one did, the prayer said after a person dies? The Vidui prayer is the prayer said at the end of life, asking for forgiveness for anything one did.

Now we're going to talk about what happens at a funeral.

So we've.

A Jewish funeral will generally take place either at a funeral home or a cemetery.

They traditionally don't take place within a synagogue.

A Jewish funeral traditionally has prayers.

Some psalms are read and eulogies or speeches about the person who just died, and those might be said by family members or friends, or the rabbi, or a mixture of any of those groups of people.

After the body is buried, the coffin is buried, the mourners are going to walk by through a row of those attending the funeral.

And those who attend the funeral will traditionally say to the mourners, "May you find comfort amongst or among "the mourners of Zion in Israel." This is the traditional phrase that one would say to someone who's mourning, although there are many other things someone could say that are other words of comfort that come from the heart, saying, "I'm sorry for your loss," or "May that person's memory be for a blessing." Most Orthodox Jews don't believe that one is allowed to be cremated.

So Orthodox Jewish funerals will take place with traditional burial.

There are some Reform and Progressive Jews who do allow for cremation.

So not all Jewish funerals will take place at a cemetery.

Once a person, a body is buried, and the family, according to tradition will sit, what is known as sitting shiva.

Shiva literally means seven in Hebrew, and this term or word represents the first seven days of mourning.

For these seven days, the immediate family members meaning the, anyone's parents or children or spouses are going to sit.

Customs include sitting on low chairs or stools, staying home, not going out.

Some people will have a candle burning for all seven days.

Some people have the custom of not cutting their hair or shaving.

So they'll grow out a beard.

All of these are signs of Jewish rituals of mourning.

During the time that the mourners are not allowed to leave their home, or according to some traditions, not allowed to leave their home or are just not feeling up to it, members of the community and friends will come to comfort the mourners in their home.

You might hear a term such as paying a shiva call.

What that means is going to the shiva house, to the house that someone is sitting shiva, to talk and listen about the person who just passed.

In many communities, the prayer services during the week of shiva, except for on Shabbat, will actually move to the mourner's house.

That way, the mourners and their families are able to still pray and pray with the community, and not have to leave their homes.

One prayer that gets said is called the Kaddish prayer.

This prayer is traditionally said by mourners, although it does not actually have anything to do with death.

The words of this prayer are about praising God.

This prayer is going to be said by the mourner for the first 30 days after burial, and then, traditionally, every year on the anniversary of the death of their loved one.

According to most Jewish opinions, if the person, if the mourner is mourning the loss of a parent, the Kaddish prayer's actually going to be said for 11 months.

The mourning rituals for one's parents are much longer.

They're not going to be 30 days.

They're going to be 11 months.

And every year, it's traditional to remember the person who died.

In Yiddish, this is called a yahrzeit, or the anniversary of the death of a person.

And there are many different customs that each person or family and communities have, what do we do to mark this anniversary? On this day, some of the customs are to light a candle and keep that lit for 24 hours.

Some will say the Kaddish and make a point of going to synagogue.

Some will go to the grave site and place a rock on top of the gravestone.

Some will tell stories and memories of their loved one, or have a family gathering.

There are many different customs that people and communities have in order to remember those that they've lost.

What does the term shiva refer to? Is it a type of Jewish prayer, a Jewish holiday, the group who helps prepare a body for burial or the period of mourning lasting seven days following burial? Shiva refers to the period of mourning lasting seven days following burial.

What are some Jewish traditions to remember someone who dies? Play their favourite song once a month, bring flowers to their grave, on the anniversary of their death, say Kaddish, light a candle and visit their grave and place a stone, have a festive meal.

Some Jewish traditions to remember someone who died is on the anniversary of their death, say Kaddish, light a candle and visit their grave and place a stone.

Now I'd like you to pause the video to complete your task.

Please answer the following questions in complete sentences.

One, give an example of how a Jewish community tries to comfort a mourner, and two, explain two Jewish, two rituals a Jewish person might do when a person dies.

Press play to resume once you're finished.

You're doing a great job today.

Today is a tough topic and sometimes hard to talk about.

So what are some examples or an example of a Jewish, of what a Jewish community tries to do to comfort mourners? One example of how the Jewish community tries to comfort mourners is by community members visiting the mourners' home and speaking with them.

Another example is by the community prayer services taking place in the mourners' home, and explain two rituals a Jewish person might do when a person dies.

When someone dies, a Jewish person might do kriah, ripping their shirt in grief.

Another ritual is sitting shiva, sitting in mourning for seven days after the burial.

You all did a wonderful job today.

We learned a lot.

We learned about some Jewish views about what happens after a person dies.

And then we learned about some of the Jewish rituals that happen for those who are, who lost someone in their lives, whether that is sitting shiva, saying Kaddish, or remembering that person every year.

Take a moment to think about three things that you learned today, and feel free to share that with a parent or carer or friend or teacher.

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It was great learning with you today.

I hope you have a wonderful rest of the day and happy learning!.