(RNS) — I don’t know about you, but ever since Pope Francis died, TikTok has been sending me some very weird videos.
Those videos are all about heaven and hell — or, at least, certain Christian perceptions of heaven and hell.
A common theme is of an AI-created Pope Francis dying, lying in an open coffin, being kissed by the Virgin Mary and rising into heaven. There, Jesus meets and embraces him, and then he meets his deceased papal predecessors — and in some versions, he meets the late Queen Elizabeth, as well.
There are even more lavish videos of heaven. In some videos, children, dogs and pregnant women who died in childbirth ascend a heavenly stair and at the top meet Jesus. Many of those videos portray God as, wait for it, an old man in flowing robes, with a long beard.
I must admit it: Heaven looks absolutely gorgeous.
And, it’s not as if we haven’t seen this before. Heaven was a favorite theme of medieval art.
But, the TikTok videos also contain fantasies of hell. Those depictions would be enough to frighten anyone — certainly children. They’ve got all the big hits: Satan, demons, errant spirits, sinners boiling in blood and excrement, apocalyptic fantasies from the Book of Revelation.
I don’t want to judge anyone’s faith. But this is scary stuff.
Then again, I am writing as a rabbi who knows something about how my faith views life after death. I have also read many books by Jewish thinkers on the subject.
Yes, Judaism believes in life after death. The Bible talks about Sheol, where the dead go to reside — a place of darkness, where nothing much really happens. But there was little else about the next world — probably because the Egyptians believed in it, and biblical Judaism is, in one sense, a rejection of ancient Egypt.
But, in post-biblical Judaism, Jews taught that the dead would reside with God in olam haba, “the world to come,” or in a heavenly Gan Eden, Garden of Eden. This becomes standard Jewish belief. People always tell me this sounds Christian. Where do you think Christianity got it from? Not only Christianity, Islam liked the idea as well. (And, by the way, Jewish theology is very clear: all righteous people — not only Jews — get into olam haba.)
How would most Jews “encounter” Jewish ideas about the afterlife?
Probably at a funeral, when we hear this prayer for the dead:
Merciful God, God Most High: Let there be perfect rest for the souls of our loved ones who have gone into eternity. May they find shelter in Your presence among the holy and pure whose light shines like the radiance of heaven. Compassionate God, hold them close to You forever. May their souls be bound up in the bond of life eternal. May they find a home in You. And may they rest in peace.
But, according to Judaism, what happens in the world to come?
Those images are very obscure. I found some of them in Sefer HaAggadah, The Book of Legends, the classic compendium of Jewish lore.
In the Jewish imagination, when a righteous person enters the world to come they remove the garments worn in the grave and are given eight garments of clouds of glory and two crowns, one of precious stones and pearls and the other of gold. In other passages, you would learn that righteous people go back to their childhood and go through the entire cycle of life again. Or, you would read that the righteous sit in the Garden of Eden, where the great sages teach Torah.
The images are gorgeous.
They are also obscure. Which is to say, very few Jewish teachers would offer them to their students.
What about — gulp — hell? Does Judaism believe in that?
Well, yes. Sort of.
Traditional Judaism believes in Geihinom or Gehenna. Really bad sinners go there after death for up to 12 months to become purified of their sins (think: Jewish purgatory). Then, they “graduate” and go on to olam haba, the world to come.
There is a legend about Rabbi Akiba, perhaps the greatest sage of early Judaism. He was wandering in a cemetery late at night and met a man who was carrying a very heavy pile of wood.
Akiba asked him: “Is there anything that you can do that will save you from such a punishment?”
“Yes,” the man said. “Find my son; teach him how to say Kaddish for me; and I will be saved from this painful fate.” He would then go on to olam haba, or the Garden of Eden.
That is one reason why Kaddish became so important and crucial to the lives of so many Jews. Jews wanted someone to say Kaddish for them, and if they had no children, they would sometimes hire someone, even a stranger, to do so! Years ago, there was even a toll-free number you could call to arrange for someone to say Kaddish! For many Jews, it is simply that important. It’s about immortality.
One last thing.
That hapless man who was wandering in the cemetery: What was the sin that had caused such a punishment?
When Akiba asked the man that question, he answered: “I was a tax collector, and I created policies that favored the rich over the poor.”
Notice what the man did not answer. He did not say he had violated the Sabbath or had eaten pork or had failed to pray at the appointed times.
No, he had done a “reverse Robin Hood.” He had stolen from the poor to favor the rich. His failure of social justice had sent him into the abyss.
Think communally, now.
Our failures of justice will send us, as a society, into an abyss.
So, yes, those AI-generated videos of heaven are gorgeous. I suspect they provide some believers with comfort and hope. The ones about hell? I don’t even want to go there (so to speak).
But, those are other-worldly fantasies.
That is why Jews work toward tikkun olam — repairing the world.
This world.
Not the next world.