Here goes. Judaism and the Afterlife 101.
In the biblical period, ancient Jews believed that people went to Sheol, a shadowy pit beneath the earth. Nothing much happens there (sort of like certain cities that you have visited, no doubt).
This is pretty much the standard view until the book of Daniel, perhaps the last book of the Bible to be written.
â??Many of those that sleep in the dust will awaken,â? we read, â??and the knowledgeable will be radiant like the bright expanse of the sky, and those who have led the many to righteousness will be like the stars forever and ever.â? (Daniel 11:2-3). That verse is the beginning of the Jewish idea of personal immortality.
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