The central theme of this study is the eschatology of Judaism as conceived by its proponents from remote antiquity to the present day, eschatology being a branch of theology concerned with the end of history and time as we know it. Eschatological theories and beliefs will be found in every culture where its thinkers struggle to make sense of their lives and history, and most particularly regarding what happens to them and their world after their lives come to an end. As a consequence, such beliefs or theories must necessarily be highly imaginative because they relate to a period beyond time. The very term ‘afterlife’ captures the frustrating ambiguity of the notion of eschatology for neither our language nor our conceptual skills can deal with an ‘end’ to time. There is no ‘after’ to time, for the term ‘after’ is itself a time-related notion. There is only an ‘after’ within time. Nonetheless, eschatological notions attempt to takes us beyond time. Judaism tends to be precise where it touches human activity, while thought and doctrine remain fluid. Thus we find widely varying conjectures by individual Jewish sages in antiquity, further imaginative guesses by medieval rabbis and philosophers, and continuing attempts to grapple with the subject in the modern and contemporary eras. This examination of Judaic eschatological thought is subdivided into seven topical chapters: The idea of an afterlife, the resurrection of the dead, the immortality of the soul, transmigration or reincarnation, modern religious ideas relating to resurrection and immortality, messianism, and divine reward and retribution after death.

Originally published in 1994, Jewish Views of the Afterlife is a classic study of ideas of afterlife and postmortem survival in Jewish tradition and mysticism. As both a scholar and pastoral counselor, Raphael guides the reader through 4,000 years of Jewish thought on the afterlife by investigating pertinent sacred texts produced in each era. Through a compilation of ideas found in the Bible, Apocrypha, rabbinic literature, medieval philosophy, medieval Midrash, Kabbalah, Hasidism and Yiddish literature, the reader learns how Judaism conceived of the fate of the individual after death throughout Jewish history. In addition, this book explores the implications of Jewish afterlife beliefs for a renewed understanding of traditional rituals of funeral, burial, shiva, kaddish and more. This newly released twenty-fifth anniversary edition presents new material on little-known Jewish mystical teachings on reincarnation, a chapter on “Spirits, Ghosts and Dybbuks in Yiddish Literature”, and a foreword by the renowned scholar of Jewish mysticism, Rabbi Arthur Green. Both historical and contemporary, this book provides a rich resource for scholars and laypeople and for teachers and students and makes an important Jewish contribution to the growing contemporary psychology of death and dying.

The central theme of this study is the eschatology of Judaism as conceived by its proponents from remote antiquity to the present day, eschatology being a branch of theology concerned with the end of history and time as we know it. Eschatological theories and beliefs will be found in every culture where its thinkers struggle to make sense of their lives and history, and most particularly regarding what happens to them and their world after their lives come to an end. As a consequence, such beliefs or theories must necessarily be highly imaginative because they relate to a period beyond time. The very term 'afterlife' captures the frustrating ambiguity of the notion of eschatology for neither our language nor our conceptual skills can deal with an 'end' to time. There is no 'after' to time, for the term 'after' is itself a time-related notion. There is only an 'after' within time. Nonetheless, eschatological notions attempt to takes us beyond time. Judaism tends to be precise where it touches human activity, while thought and doctrine remain fluid. Thus we find widely varying conjectures by individual Jewish sages in antiquity, further imaginative guesses by medieval rabbis and philosophers, and continuing attempts to grapple with the subject in the modern and contemporary eras. This examination of Judaic eschatological thought is subdivided into seven topical chapters: The idea of an afterlife, the resurrection of the dead, the immortality of the soul, transmigration or reincarnation, modern religious ideas relating to resurrection and immortality, messianism, and divine reward and retribution after death.

Eschatology is the study of the last things: death, judgment, the afterlife, and the end of the world. Through centuries of Christian thoughtfrom the early Church fathers through the Middle Ages and the Reformationthese issues were of the utmost importance. In other religions, too, eschatological concerns were central. After the Enlightenment, though, many religious thinkers began to downplay the importance of eschatology which, in light of rationalism, came to be seen as something of an embarrassment. The twentieth century, however, saw the rise of phenomena that placed eschatology back at the forefront of religious thought. From the rapid expansion of fundamentalist forms of Christianity, with their focus on the end times; to the proliferation of apocalyptic new religious movements; to the recent (and very public) debates about suicide, martyrdom, and paradise in Islam, interest in eschatology is once again on the rise. In addition to its popular resurgence, in recent years some of the worlds most important theologians have returned eschatology to its former position of prominence. The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology will provide an important critical survey of this diverse body of thought and practice from a variety of perspectives: biblical, historical, theological, philosophical, and cultural. This volume will be the primary resource for students, scholars, and others interested in questions of our ultimate existence.

The final book of the Bible, Revelation prophesies the ultimate judgement of mankind in a series of allegorical visions, grisly images and numerological predictions. According to these, empires will fall, the "Beast" will be destroyed and Christ will rule a new Jerusalem. With an introduction by Will Self.

Judaism, the origin of which dates from the rejection of polytheism by the patriarch Abraham nearly four thousand years ago, is committed to the worship of the one and only God. In the course of that long period of devotion, the character of that worship has evolved from a primitive form to progressively more sophisticated approaches necessitated by historical circumstances. The present study is concerned primarily with the original concept of worship of the divine in the form of a sacrificial cult, conducted by a priestly hierarchy, as described in the biblical Pentateuch, and the later transition to a democratized form of verbal worship conducted by the laity in a synagogue or by the individual in one’s home, as described in the rabbinic literature. One of the significant difficulties encountered in such a study is the translation of biblical and rabbinic Hebrew texts into English, which employs terminology such as ‘worship’ and ‘prayer’, terms which have no reliable biblical or rabbinic Hebrew equivalent. Accordingly, the common equation of worship, in the general sense of reverence paid to a god, with prayer, in the more precise Jewish sense of supplication or petition, can be misleading. Indeed, prayer, understood in the latter sense, constitutes a rather small segment of the voluminous liturgy of Jewish worship, much of which is drawn directly from Scripture, whereas prayer as petition, both formal and personal, is primarily the product of individuals confronting a variety of challenges to their and their coreligionists’ social and physical wellbeing. The principal focus of this study is on prayer, understood in the latter sense, which is traditionally interconnected with benedictions intended to give hope to those petitioning for divine beneficence.