A Jewish scholar I once heard speak talked about how his people viewed life and death not as one season followed by another, life and then death, but that throughout your day they were states you would enter. That your decisions and thoughts and actions would take into life or death.

That for a people so obsessed with life after death and whether we could get into heaven - or if there was one at all - we could be focused on bringing heaven to earth today through our words, thoughts, and actions.