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The creation of man bears
witness to the eternal life of the soul. The Bible says, "Then
the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul"
(Genesis 2:7) .
On this Bible verse, the holy Zohar says that "one who blows, blows
from within himself," indicating that the soul is actually part
of God's essence. Since God's essence is completely spiritual and nonphysical,
it is impossible that the soul should die. (The great Chizkuni says,
this why the verse calls it "Soul of Life.")
That's what King Solomon meant when he wrote, "The dust will
return to the ground as it was, and the spirit will return to God who
gave it." (Ecclesiastes 12:17)
For anyone who believes in a just and caring God, the existence of an
afterlife makes logical sense. Could it be this world is just a playground
without consequences? Did Hitler get away with killing 6,000,000 Jews?
No. There is obviously a place where good people receive reward and
bad people get punished. (See
Maimonides 13 Principles of Faith)
Traditionally, Judaism states very clearly that our eternal soul is
as real as our face. This is the world of doing, and the "world
to come" is where we experience the eternal reality of whatever
we've become. Do you think after being responsible for the torture and
deaths of millions of people, that Hitler could really "end it
all" by just swallowing some poison? No. Ultimate justice is found
in another dimension.
Afterlife Experience
When an individual passes away and  goes
to heaven, the judgment is not arbitrary and externally imposed. First
you find yourself somewhat traveling through a tunnel towards a source
of white light, the glow is to powerful to look. While traveling through
the crossing - you can simply recognize and feel the comfort of your
grandparents and great grandparents. Upon arrival the Talmud says, the
heavenly court your will ask you three questions.
1. Did you deal in business honestly ? 
2. Did you set aside specific time for Torah study?
3. Did you hope for the Redemption of the
Messiah?
They will then play you a video titled "This is Your Life."
Every decision and every thought, all the good deeds, and the embarrassing
things a person did in private are all replayed without any embellishments.
It's fully opened for all to see. That's why the next world is called
Olam HaEmet - "the World of Truth," because there we
clearly recognize our personal strengths and shortcomings, and the true
purpose of life.
The second video shows what you could have been, if the right choices
had been made, if the opportunities were seized, if the potential was
actualized. The pain of squandered potential - is much more difficult
to bear. But at the same time it purifies the soul as well. (Some torah
commentators say, that itself is hell) The pain creates regret, which
removes the barriers and enables the soul to completely connect to God.
Not all souls merit (Gehenom) Hell It is for people who have done good
but need to be purified. A handful of people are too evil for Hell,
and they are punished eternally. Pharaoh is one example.
Read an astounding vivid
tale about an intelligence officer who died and lived to tell about
it. 
Paradises
Paradises
is where the soul experiences the greatest possible blissful pleasure
- the feeling of closeness to God. Of course not all souls experience
that to the same degree. Depending on what your eared on this world.
It's like going to a game. Some tickets are front-row; others are back
in the bleachers. Where your seat is located is based on the merit of
your good deeds - e.g. giving charity, caring for others, prayer.
When The Soul goes up
The
dead has awareness of
the living says the Talmud (Berachot 18b), the dead can focus on any
living thing. One who is involved in the spiritual life, he may not
even have any pain while the soul departs from his body; spiritual heaven
is like his main focus. -However the one who's all into the physical
life, the soul departing can be as painful as hell.
When a soul departs from this world there are steps: the way in which
the soul says good-bye. The first time the soul says good-bye is when
it leaves the body It's a heavy kind of good-bye. Somehow the soul is
still connected to the body, but not connected enough to give life.
According to Jewish tradition, throughout a funeral the dead person
is completely aware of how they are buried. All the Rabbis would say
when you go to a funeral you better be serious, because the person looks
at you and sees if your for real or not. They already have heavenly
eyes and they look at you. This is one sense of saying good-bye
The second good-bye is after seven days. The soul and the body are getting
a little more distant. The body is resting in the cemetery and the soul
goes up, but there's still some connection. The connection is not so
much to the body as its to the people who love this person very much.
After thirty days, the soul somehow goes up to heaven. And fore eleven
months the soul is judged, and this is the time when people who are
closest to the person who left the world are saying Kaddish.
Each time Kaddish is said it's like you're giving energy to that
soul in an unbelievable way. You have no idea. While the person's in
this world the soul is in garments and even the love is in garments.
It's clear to you and me, when our mothers say to us, "Why don't you
eat more, why don't you sleep more? "-you know what they are telling
us? They just want us to know how much they love us. But sadly enough,
in this world, there is no way to say it except in a garmented way.
So they say, "eat chicken soup, sleep more, or are you making a lot
of money?" All these things, they mean so much more, but sadly they
don't know how to say it. But when they leave this world, it's so deep
that when a person says Kaddish at that moment the person from
the other world is actually standing beside them and telling them how
much they love them. This is just so awesome. When
we are born our parents carry us. When they die,we carry them, but the
truth is they are really carrying us forever.
Question:
If the World to Come (the
afterlife) is the ultimate perfect world that we aspire to go when we
die, then why are we constantly wishing everyone to "have a long life"?
Surely if the World to Come is so wonderful, shouldn't we wish less
years in this world, in order to sooner reach the World to Come?
Answers:
The reward that we receive
in the World to Come is a direct result of the effort that we put into
doing the will of God's good deeds, while we are alive on Earth. A person
who dedicates his life to mitzvoth and spirituality will get a qualitatively
better "World to Come" than a person whose commitment was peripheral.
We are living in the world of free choice (between good and bad), and
whatever level you attain in this world is eternal. That's why the great
sages performed mitzvoth even till their dying breath.
The great Rabbi Vilna Gaon was crying on his deathbed, and his students
asked him, "Why are you crying?" He held up his Shawl Prayer (Tzitzit)
strings and said, "Every moment of wearing these fringes I am able to
fulfill another good deed. But soon I will be dead and I will no longer
have this great merit."
Our attitude toward performing mitzvoth should be like someone who is
in a room full of diamonds. You are allowed to grab as much as you can,
and you don't know how much time you're given to do so.
Remembering your name in the afterlife
The
earthbound disembodied soul can encounter a number of risks. If it is
unable to separate itself from the body even through pain, it can experience
a decay of consciousness and a turning into nothingness. An angel Dumah
(Silence), is the guardian of the dead, and wanting to prevent this decay,
This angel asks each soul for its Hebrew name. The rabbis say that some
people suffer amnesia due to the shock of dying and are, consequently
unable to remember their identity. In order to dispel this forgetfulness,
the learning of a mnemonic device while one is alive is recommended at
the conclusion of every Amidah (the central
prayer of the service), the worshiper is instructed to "sign off"
by reciting a biblical verse, Each name represents a particular verse,
that begins with the first letter of his name and ends with the last letter
of his name.
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Here
is a list of names and verses
Among Sephardic Jews,
the child is initiated into his/her own sentence at the bar or
bat mitzvah. In this way, the worshiper reinforces the memory
of his Jewish name at the end of every prayer service.
Thus, in death, even if he is unable to remember his name, he
will he able to remember the Torah verse, because Torah is eternal
and cannot decay.
The soul will therefore be comfy and able to follow the angels
who summon it before the heavenly court.
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