The Evolution of Jewish Beliefs about the Afterlife

Discussion of the afterlife is largely absent from Jewish religious discussion today, but for a long time the concept of postmortem reward and punishment was an important part of Judaism. Elon Gilad traces these ideas from their biblical origins and explains how they changed and developed. It seems that they key moment for cementing belief in the afterlife came around the first century CE, as Gilad writes (free registration required):

According to Josephus, a Jewish historian writing at the end of the first century CE, the question of afterlife was a major point of contention for Jewish theologians of the period. The Sadducees, the prominent priestly class who ran the Temple, did not believe in an afterlife, or in the resurrection of the dead, Josephus writes. Meanwhile, their counterparts and adversaries, the Pharisees, an elite of experts in Jewish law, believed in both.

Once the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, the Sadducees and their theology were lost, and the Pharisees and their conception of the afterlife became mainstream rabbinical Judaism.

Thus, from the time of early rabbinic Judaism, belief in the afterlife and the resurrection of the dead became core to the faith. “All Israel have a portion in the world to come,” the Mishnah (200 CE) states, only to qualify this statement with a list of individuals who are excluded: “One who maintains that resurrection is not a biblical doctrine, the Torah was not divinely revealed, and a heretic.”

Read more at Haaretz

More about: Afterlife, Jewish history, Josephus, Judaism, Kabbalah, Religion & Holidays

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF