What does Torah say about an afterlife for animals? Is there somewhere animals go after they die? Please include the sources of your answers.
Answer
The Rambam writes (Teshuva 8:1):
וכל מי שאינו זוכה לחיים אלו הוא המת שאינו חי לעולם אלא נכרת ברשעו ואבד כבהמה. ... כלומר שאותה הנפש שפירשה מן הגוף בעולם הזה אינה זוכה לחיי העולם הבא אלא גם מן העולם הבא נכרתת
Whoever does not merit to this life he is the dead that does not live forever, rather is cut off in his wickedness and lost like an animal ... that is to say that this soul which leaves the body in this world does not merit the world to come, rather even from the world to come it is cut off.
(Emphasis added).
Thus the Rambam takes an animal as an obvious example of a living thing that does not have an afterlife.
Kabbalistically, a person can be reincarnated into an animal, so a given animal may have such a soul in it.
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