do not buy into the false idea that's only much later in the Old Testament where you have belief in the afterlife not the case at all from Genesis onward the people of God believed in a life after this one let me give an example so multiple times in the Torah you have a phrase that occurs when a person dies we're told that person was gathered to his people what does it mean well it's commonly explained to mean that a person was buried in an ancestral grave but as naam sarna points out in his Genesis commentary
that doesn't apply at all in the case of Abraham and Aaron and Moses all of whom were told was gathered to his people and none of whom were buried in an ancestral grave nor does it mean simply burial because in Jacob's case Jacob dies he's gathered to his people and only much later is you actually buried so what does it mean well it means that when we end this life we continue to live to exist to God we go to be with him and we are then at the same time with all of our ancestors
who also believed in and trusted in the one true God in the Christian confession therefore when we died we leave this life we continue to live to exist to God and we go to be with our spiritual family and hopefully also members of our physical family as well in heaven all of whom believed in and trusted the one true God so from Genesis onward we have belief by the people of God in a life after this one a life with God
