What Happens After We Die? Life Review, Judgment, and the Journey of the Soul

Rabbi (Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi) taught: Which is the straight path a person should choose? One that is beautiful for the one who does it, and beautiful in the eyes of others. Be as careful with a “light”  mitzvah as with a “serious” one, for you do not know the reward of the mitzvot. Calculate the loss of a mitzvah against its reward, and the reward of a sin against its loss. Look at three things so you will not come to sin:

1. Know what is above you —

2. An Eye that sees,

3. An Ear that hears,

4. And all your deeds are written in a Book.

(Pirkei Avot 2:1)

Before a Person Leaves This World

When a person is about to depart from this world, the Holy One, blessed be He, appears to him and says: “Write down your deeds, for you are judged based on your deeds.” The person writes and signs.

(Yalkut Shimoni, Iyov)

The Soul Sees Its Life Like a Fast-Moving Film

A woman who experienced clinical death described the moment she saw her life reviewed: “Suddenly I returned to my childhood. It was like walking through the earliest stages of my life, year by year, up to the present. The images passed before me in perfect order, so vivid, as though viewed from the outside — three-dimensional, in color, moving. It was so fast, and yet slow enough for me to absorb everything… like watching an entire life’s photo album in seconds. It flashed before me like a film reel running rapidly.”

(From Dr. Raymond Moody’s book “Life After Life”)

Mr. Fried’s Testimony: Seeing His Life After Death

Mr. Fried described what happened to him on a Friday afternoon: A doctor declared him dead. His family prepared to transport the body for autopsy, but his religious mother refused until after Shabbat. Early Sunday morning, he suddenly “woke up” and began making sounds, terrifying the person standing beside his body.

He recalled: “I weakened and fell. I felt myself drifting — my true self, out of my body. I heard beautiful music and floated down the corridor, through the doorway, into the screened porch. A pinkish mist gathered around me, and I floated straight through the screen into a crystal-like transparent light that was white and radiant. It was beautiful, dazzling, but did not hurt my eyes. I did not see a person within the light, yet it had a clear identity — an absolute understanding, an absolute love.”

He continued: “I knew I was dying and could do nothing — no one heard me. I was outside my body — I saw my own body on the operating table. I saw the doctors and nurses clearly. Then the light appeared, huge and glowing, warm and gentle. The light spoke to me — not with a voice like a person, but directly. The first thing it said was: ‘What do you have to show for your life?’ Then the review began. I saw my life from the earliest childhood moments, year after year — three-dimensional, in color, every detail moving before me.”

A Person Must Sign on Their Own Deeds

When a person leaves the world, all their deeds are brought before them. They say to him: “Such-and-such you did on this day. Do you admit it?” And he says: “Yes, yes.”

(Sifri, Ha’azinu)

Editor’s note: Those who undergo near-death experiences today describe seeing their lives as a film. Since ancient texts had no such term, they describe the actions as “listed” or “displayed,” as no other word existed then for what we now call a “movie-like” life review.

The Soul’s Accounting

The Zohar teaches: “When a person leaves this world, he must give an accounting before his Master of everything he did while soul and body were united.”

This is only like the presentation of the “indictment” before the trial, the deliberation, and the final judgment.

(Zohar, Noach 65, Metok Midvash p. 76)

And further: “In that moment, when a person lies bound by the King’s ‘chain,’ he lifts his eyes and sees two angels approaching. They record everything he did in this world and everything he spoke. He acknowledges all of it, for every action he did stands before him and does not leave until judgment is complete.”

(Zohar, Naso 126b)

The Power of Teshuvah

A story is told of the Chofetz Chaim: During the Ten Days of Repentance, he imagined himself standing before the Heavenly Court. On one side were angels created by his mitzvot; on the other, destructive forces created by his sins. After weighing everything, the verdict was: “beinoni” — intermediate.

Since God leans toward mercy, a voice from Heaven asked: “Is Yisrael Meir (the Chofetz Chaim) alive or dead at this moment?”
When they answered, “Alive,” God declared: “Then he still has time to repent!”

Hearing this in his imagination, the Chofetz Chaim began shouting at himself with fiery urgency: “You! Don’t sleep! Hurry and do teshuvah!”

Such scenes he would reenact often to awaken himself with real fear of Heaven and awareness of personal accountability.

(“Tenuat HaMussar”)

A Person’s Deeds Are Recorded Every Day

The Zohar explains that people are judged on four occasions: Pesach, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, and Sukkot. But every day the books are open, and all actions are written — though judgment is rendered only on the four appointed times.

Every morning, angelic witnesses stand before a person, warning them not to sin that day. If the person transgresses, the books are open and the deed is written.

(Zohar, Vayechi 247–248, Metok Midvash pp. 559–560)

Seven Judgments After Death

The Zohar describes seven stages of judgment that every soul undergoes after leaving this world:

1. The great judgment when the soul leaves the body.

2. When the person’s deeds and words appear before him and announce themselves.

3. When he is placed in the grave.

4. The punishment of “chibbut hakever” (the shaking of the grave).

5. The judgment of the worms consuming the body.

6. The judgment of Gehinnom.

7. The judgment of the wandering soul, unable to find rest until all punishments are completed — sometimes through reincarnation or through wandering in the “void” until purified.

Therefore, a person must constantly examine their deeds, for some appear good but contain sin, and one must return to his Creator for everything he has done.

(Zohar, Vayakhel 199, Metok Midvash pp. 238–239)