Olam HaBa — The World to Come
Olam HaBa (the World to Come) is the Jewish teaching about afterlife and ultimate redemption — deliberately vague about specifics but insistent that human actions have eternal consequences.
Olam HaBa (the World to Come — sometimes also the Messianic era) is the Jewish eschatological vision of what lies beyond present historical existence. Unlike traditions with detailed maps of heaven and hell, Jewish tradition is deliberately reticent about the specifics of afterlife: the Talmud (Berakhot 34b) says 'No eye has seen, no ear has heard what God has prepared for those who wait for Him.' What the tradition affirms: there is a continuation of some form beyond physical death; human actions have consequences beyond the grave; the soul is judged; and there is ultimately a state of closeness to God (Gan Eden — Garden of Eden) that constitutes ultimate human fulfillment. Maimonides deliberately placed the belief in resurrection of the dead as the last of his 13 Principles of Faith — while other authorities debate whether spiritual immortality or physical resurrection is primary. What matters practically is the ethical implication: if actions have eternal consequences, the stakes of moral choice are infinite.
No eye has seen, O God, besides You, what You have prepared for those who wait for You.
The Mishnah (Sanhedrin 10:1) opens its discussion of the afterlife with 'All Israel have a share in the world to come,' and belief in the resurrection of the dead stands among Maimonides' Thirteen Principles of Faith. The Talmud (Berakhot 17a) pictures olam haba as a realm with 'no eating, no drinking... the righteous sit with their crowns, delighting in the radiance of the Divine Presence.'
Tanakh