Rabbi Eliezer's students asked him a direct question: what happens in the grave? According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle compiled by Jerahmeel ben Solomon, his answer was chilling. The Angel of Death comes to the grave, beats on it, and demands, "Tell me your name." The dead person replies, "I do not know my name." Then the soul is forced back into the body. The dead man stands up and faces judgment.
Rabbi undefined ben Levi adds the details. The angels bring a chain of iron, half burning like fire, half frozen like ice. At the first blow, the limbs separate. At the second, the bones scatter. The ministering angels gather them back together and reassemble the body, then beat it a third time. Each part of the body is punished for its specific transgressions. The eyes, for gazing at sin. The ears, for hearing evil. The tongue, for false testimony. The hands, for violence. The legs, for running toward wrongdoing.
Rabbi Meir taught, in the name of Rabbi Joshua, that the judgment of the grave is actually more severe than Gehinnom (the place of spiritual purification after death). In Gehinnom, only those aged thirteen and older are judged. But in the grave, even stillborn children, even nursing infants, even the perfectly righteous face examination.
Three levels of punishment exist, each more severe than the last. Three days are devoted to the punishment of the grave. Three to Gehinnom. Three to the punishment of heaven itself, which takes place in the direct presence of God. Ordinary transgressors spend twelve months in Gehinnom. The worst offenders, those who violated the entire Torah and followed idolatrous ways, have their bodies and souls burned. Gehinnom vomits them out, and the north wind scatters their ashes under the feet of the righteous.