AboutRabbi Barry Dov Lerner Expertise Write to me with questions about Jewish customs and law, history,
philosophy and tradition for answers from a Conservative perspective or conversion. I am a graduate of The Jewish Theological Seminary and a member of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly. Having served in congregational pulpits since 1970, I now am President of the Foundation For Family Education, Inc. a non-profit educational endeavor. I established it to create new formats of hands-on programs and provide free educational downloads at www.jewishfreeware.org. In addition to general informational questions I welcome your questions about programs for social action, outreach to dual-faith families, inter-faith clergy projects, healing services, education for conversion, adult education for the congregation and the community. If you have questions about Informal and Formal Education I am ready to share my extensive experience with Youth Activities, Camping and Religious School/Hebrew High School on a congregational, community and national/international level.
Experience I have served on the National Youth Commission for more than 25 years and serve on the Boards of the Conservative Zionist movement MERCAZ and the World Council of Synagogues. I have always dual-families and taught candidates for conversion with a great sense of fulfillment. I am very proud of 25 years on the Jewish camping staff of Camps Ramah. My greatest source of pride is my family! Ask me about them, please!:-)
I didn't think that the Jewish people believed in hell? I ran across a commentary saying the opposite.
דינה של גיהנם, "the judgment, or damnation of hell", is a phrase often used in the Talmud (p), and Midrashes (q) of the Jews; and intends future torment, and the everlasting vengeance and wrath of God, the unquenchable fire prepared for the devil and his angels, and which impenitent unbelieving sinners cannot escape,
(p) T. Bab. Berncot, fol. 61. 1. Erubin, fol. 18. 2. Yebamot, fol. 102. 2. Sota, fol. 4. 2. & 5. 1. & Bava Bathra, fol. 10. 1. (q) Bemidbar Rabba, fol. 203. 1. Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 14. 2. & Midrash Kohelet, fol. 76. 1.
Please enlighten me.
Thanks
Murel
Answer Dear Murel,
Thanks for writing and it is a good single question that opens a very large discussion.
The real answer is "yes," "no," "maybe," "sometimes," "figuratively," and "what do you mean by hell?"
Did the concept of "hell" as it appears to day, often in more fundamentalist Jewish and moreso Christian writing, exist in Jewish history? Yes. Did what was believed long ago still have a following today? Yes.
Is it a mainstream issue or principle or a more marginal theological issue? I believe it is not a core principle, for in my thinking and I believe in the majority of modern Jewish thought, we make decisions for the present, to make this world a better world for all and those who follow us - not to earn our way out of hell or as a punishment for bad choices in behavior or policy, public or private. The consequences of bad choices and decisions are what we have to live with - here.
Is there an afterlife in which there is punishment, retribution, eternal or temporary consequences for our choices? I don't know, and I wont' know for certain until I reach that stage in my life. In the meantime I do know the consequences of my actions, thoughts and choices in this world - and thus I am guided in them.
Two books may be of help: Jewish Views of the Afterlife by Simcha Raphael, and What Happens After I Die?: Jewish Views of Life After Death by Rifat Sonsino; Daniel B. Syme
The new 2007 Encyclopedia Judaica includes the following which may be of help.
Best wishes
Rabbi Dov
PARADISE AND HELL IN LATER JEWISH THOUGHT
Paradise and Hell, the places of reward for the righteous and punishment for the wicked after death, are traditionally referred to as the Garden of Eden and *Gehinnom respectively. In the Bible these two names never refer to the abode of souls after death; nevertheless, the idea of a fiery torment for the wicked may have been suggested by Isaiah 66:24. The earliest possible allusion to Gehinnom in the new sense is foundPage 628 | Top of Article in the Apocrypha, in which the general phrase "accursed valley" is used to describe the place where the wicked will be judged and punished (I En. 27:1ff.). The name Gehenna (= Gehinnom) first appears in the New Testament (e.g., Matt. 5:22, 29ff.), as does "Paradise," the abode of the blessed (e.g., Luke 23:43). The word pardes ("park," "orchard") occurs in biblical and talmudic sources, but rarely, if ever, in the sense of "heavenly abode." The oldest Jewish source to mention Gan (= Garden of) Eden and Gehinnom is probably a statement of Johanan b. Zakkai at the end of the first century C.E.: "There are two ways before me, one leading to Paradise and the other to Gehinnom" (Ber. 28b). Jewish teaching about a future life was never systematized, and the varied statements in rabbinic literature cannot be combined into a consistent whole. "Days of the Messiah" and "World to Come" are sometimes sharply distinguished, sometimes virtually identified. Some passages indicate that the righteous and wicked will enter Gan Eden and Gehinnom only after the resurrection and last judgment; in others, the departed take their assigned places immediately after death. Other descriptions of future bliss and punishment make no mention of locale.
APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE
The apocalypses frequently mention the punishment of the wicked by fire (I En. 90:26ff.; IV Ezra 7:36; Testament of Abraham (A) 12). In II Enoch 10 the places of reward and punishment are located in the third heaven; usually Hell is underground, as in II Enoch 40:12. Hell is sometimes identified with *Sheol (I En. 22:8ff.). In the Bible, however, Sheol was the abode of all the dead, and it was not a place of retribution. Now it becomes to some extent a place of punishment. The Apocalypses of Baruch and Ezra come closer to the old notion: Sheol is the temporary abode of souls between death and the last judgment (II Bar. 23:5; IV Ezra 4:41); but reward and punishment may begin during this period (II Bar. 36:11). The punishment at the end of time is final, and there is no hope of any further change or repentance (ibid. 85:12). The sources also describe the rewards of the righteous; Assumption of Moses 10:10 includes among the satisfactions of the righteous that they will see the wicked suffering in Gehenna.
RABBINIC LITERATURE
Gehinnom and Gan Eden existed even before the world was created (Pes. 54a), Gehinnom at the left hand of God, Gan Eden at His right (Mid. Ps. 90:12).
Gehinnom
So vast is Hell, it may be compared to a pot of which the rest of the universe forms the lid (Pes. 94a). Gehinnom is not only for punishment, but also for purgation. According to Bet Shammai, those whose merits and sins are evenly balanced will be purified in the flames of Gehinnom, and thus rendered fit to enter Gan Eden. Bet *Hillel held that such marginal persons would, by God's mercy, escape the ordeal (Tosef., Sanh. 13:3; RH 16b–17a). A widely held view was that the wicked will be punished in Gehinnom for 12 months only, after which they will be annihilated, to suffer no more. Only a limited group, chiefly those who by word and deed have repudiated their loyalty to the Jewish people and the basic doctrines of Jewish faith, will endure endless torment (Tosef., Sanh. 12:4, 5; RH 17a). However, R. Akiva cited Isaiah 66:23 concerning the 12-month sentence, indicating that even the wicked after having atoned for their sins in purgatory will join the righteous in Gan Eden (Eduy. 10). The severity of Gehinnom was mitigated in rabbinic thought. It was widely believed that all Israel, except for a few arch sinners, would have a share in the world to come, and so could not be unconditionally doomed to Hell (Sanh. 10). Abraham was said to stand at the entrance of Gehinnom and prevent his circumcised descendants from being incarcerated there (Er. 19a; cf. the reference to "Abraham's bosom" in Luke 16:23). Moreover, all the condemned, including gentiles, would have respite from punishment on the Sabbath (Sanh. 65b). The possibility that the reprobates might repent, acknowledge the justness of their punishment, and thus open the way to their redemption is mentioned in several places (Er. loc. cit.; on the sons of Korah, see Ginzberg, Legends, 6 (1928), 103, n. 586). That the piety of a son may mitigate the punishment of a deceased parent is implied in Kiddushin 31b (cf. II Macc. 12:42ff.) and stated explicitly in a post-talmudic story (Kallah Rabbati, 2:9, ed. Higger, 202ff.). The special effectiveness of the recital of *Kaddish for this purpose is mentioned in medieval writings (e.g., Bahya ben *Asher, Deut. 21:8). Some Palestinian rabbis denied that there is, or will be, a place called Gehinnom. They held that at the final judgment sinners will be destroyed by the unshielded rays of the sun or by a fire issuing from their own bodies (Gen. R. 6:6; 26:6).
MODERN PERIOD
Moses *Mendelssohn flatly rejected the idea of Hell as incompatible with the mercy of God (Gesammelte Schriften, 3 (1843), 345–7). Modern Jews of all religious viewpoints, including those who vigorously uphold the belief in personal immortality, have generally discarded the idea that Paradise and Hell exist literally. Since these concepts, though once widely accepted, were never regarded as dogmatically binding, the rejection of them has not occasioned any strain, even on Orthodoxy.
