Editing Afterlife (section)

====World to Come====
The [[Talmud]] offers several thoughts relating to the afterlife. After death, the soul is brought for judgment. Those who have led pristine lives immediately enter the ''Olam Haba'' or [[world to come]]. Most do not enter the world to come immediately but experience a period of reflection on their earthly actions and are made aware of what they have done wrong. Some view this period as "re-schooling", with the soul gaining wisdom as one's errors are reviewed. Others view this period as spiritual discomfort caused by past wrongs. At the end of this period, not longer than one year, the soul then takes its place in the world to come. Although discomforts are made part of certain Jewish conceptions of the afterlife, the concept of eternal [[damnation]] is not a tenet of the Jewish afterlife. According to the Talmud, [[Kareth|extinction of the soul]] is reserved for a far smaller group of malicious and evil leaders whose very evil deeds go way beyond norms or who lead large groups of people to utmost evil.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/tsa/tsa37.htm |title=Tractate Sanhedrin: Interpolated Section: Those Who have no Share in the World to Come |publisher=Sacred-texts.com |access-date=8 March 2014 |archive-date=20 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191020131637/https://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/tsa/tsa37.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_10049.html |title=Jehoiakim |publisher=Jewishvirtuallibrary.org |access-date=8 March 2014 |archive-date=9 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161109045833/http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_10049.html |url-status=live }}</ref> This is also part of [[Jewish principles of faith#Maimonides' 13 principles of faith|Maimonides' 13 principles of faith]].<ref name="perek-helek-c">Maimonides' Introduction to Perek Helek, publ. and transl. by [[Maimonides Heritage Center]], p. 22-23.</ref>

[[Maimonides]] describes the ''Olam Haba'' in spiritual terms, relegating the prophesied physical resurrection to the status of a future miracle unrelated to the afterlife or the [[Messianic era]]. According to Maimonides, an afterlife continues for the soul of every human being: soul now separated from the body in which it was "housed" during its earthly existence.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ESOJDwAAQBAJ&q=maimonides+olam+haba&pg=PA178|title=Jewish Views of the Afterlife|last=Paull Raphael|first=Simcha|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2019|isbn=9781538103463|pages=177–180}}</ref>

The [[Zohar]] describes [[Gehenna]] not as a place of punishment for the wicked but as a place of spiritual purification for souls.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.faqs.org/faqs/judaism/FAQ/06-Jewish-Thought/section-9.html |title=soc.culture.jewish FAQ: Jewish Thought (6/12) Section – Question 12.8: What do Jews say happens when a person dies? Do Jews believe in reincarnation? In hell or heaven? Purgatory? |publisher=Faqs.org |date=8 August 2012 |access-date=8 March 2014 |archive-date=12 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200212192206/http://www.faqs.org/faqs/judaism/FAQ/06-Jewish-Thought/section-9.html |url-status=live }}</ref>