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About Rabbi Ari Shishler
Expertise
I am the rabbi of my own shul, the learning director at Chabad House of Johannesburg, a high school teacher and the father of young children. As you can imagine, I get to answer lots of questions every day. I'd be glad to answer your questions on Judaism, Jewish spirituality and practice.

Experience
I have been a practicing Orthodox rabbi since 1997 and have headed my own community since 1999. I teach Talmud at a religious high school in Johannesburg and give daily lectures to adults on Jewish practice, spiritualty, Chassidic philosophy and Kabbalah. I'm the campus rabbi at our two major universities in Johannesburg.

Organizations
Chabad-Lubavitch South African Rabbinical Association.

Publications
Jewish Tradition, South Africa. Jewish Report, weekly newspaper, South Africa SAUJS annual Holiday guide.

Education/Credentials
After completing high scool, I spent six years studying in Rabbinical seminaries in South Africa, Israel and New York.

Past/Present Clients
www.askmoses.com

You are here: Experts > Homework Help > Judaism > Orthodox Judaism > belief

Orthodox Judaism - belief

Expert: Rabbi Ari Shishler - 11/2/2009

Question
Shalom Rabbi, I would like to know, do Jews believe in heaven and if so, who goes, do Jews believe in hell and if so, who goes? Does your answer change for Judiasm as it is practiced today as oppossed to the way it was practiced thousands of years ago? Thank you, they never taught us this in Hebrew school, they only taught us Hebrew. Marc

Answer
Hi Marc

I find it strange (although it is common) that important topics such as this are not dealt with at Hebrew school, they really should be.

Here is an article I recently wrote on the topic that I hope you will find helpful. You can also read more about the topic here: http://tinyurl.com/Heaven-Hell-in-Judaism. Please feel free to stay in touch and ask any further questions that you may have on this or other Jewish topics.

Sincerely

Rabbi Shishler

Where we are headed after we die, “up” or “down”, none of us knows for sure, but we all know we will go somewhere. Our perceptions of the available options cover a full spectrum. You might imagine a fire-spewing pit managed by red guys with pitchforks “downstairs” versus blue-skied cloudscapes “upstairs”. Perhaps your view of Heaven is of a giant 24/7 Yeshivah with the best classes imaginable and your perceived Hell is a giant washing machine, set permanently to the “hot” cycle, that cleans dirty souls.

Clearly, Jewish hell is not an eternal rotisserie nor is Heaven a six-star resort with an eighteen-hole Jack Nicklaus course. Physics insists that energy is never lost, it is merely transferred, so our spirit must transpose somewhere. But where? What happens there?

To be sure, hell is not all fiery and heaven is not a one-stop pleasure spot. Souls do not remain in Hell permanently, nor do they occupy the same spot in Heaven indefinitely. For that matter, heaven is not “up there” nor is hell “down someplace”. It might surprise you to know that Heaven and Hell are essentially the same place.

Before we proceed, let’s identify the correct terminology: “Hell” has a distinctly Christian flavour and the more benign term “purgatory” sounds a tad too Anglo Saxon. Likewise, Heaven conjures up images of harps and halos, which is not very Jewish either.

Judaism refers to Gehinnom and Gan Eden respectively. Eden means delight, which implies that good souls live in spiritual ecstasy. Gehinnom was originally the name of a valley near Jerusalem where people burned their children in the pagan “Molech” ritual. Over time, the name came to refer to burning as punishment and was eventually adopted to refer to “Hell” (originally called “Sheol” in the Torah).

To understand the Gan Eden/ Gehinnom experience, you first need to appreciate the soul’s journey through and beyond life. Souls start off in Gan Eden, alias “heaven”. G-d is tangible in Heaven and His plan for Existence is clear. Souls in Heaven appreciate that they can only fulfill G-d’s purpose in the physical dimension and they itch for their chance to venture down to Earth to contribute to His masterplan. Every soul is convinced that it will succeed; it will inspire the human it becomes to value spirituality and it will unveil Divine beauty through every physical experience.

Like a businessman headed overseas to make a fortune in an untapped market, the soul sets off towards its earthly mission. One businessman will strike gold and return home proud and wealthy. Another will whittle his time away enjoying the sights, sounds and experiences of a foreign city, only to return home broke.

Vested in a human body, the soul’s mission becomes tricky. Physical eyes do not see G-d as the soul did on High and the human heart is more attracted to cuisine than to Kabbalah. The soul initially feels frustrated by the body’s inability to perceive what is truly meaningful. Over time, the soul adapts. It may improvise, enticing the human with promises of a better life through spiritual orientation. Or, it may become complacent, forgetting why it came down here in the first place.

When the body dies, it releases the soul. The soul regains its original appreciation of G-d and His purpose for Life. Before birth, the soul was a simple, pure entity that enjoyed G-d’s presence and was clear on Life’s purpose. After death, the soul has experienced the physical world and been sullied by it. Now, the soul needs to reconcile its original purpose with the reality it has lived on Earth.

If someone has lived on Earth in sync with G-d’s vision, his or her soul will feel thrilled, proud to have returned home to announce: “Mission accomplished”. This soul delights in the powerful spiritual pleasure of one who faced the challenged of Earth and prevailed. Every moment on Earth will have heightened that soul’s sensitivity to G-d, allowing it to appreciate His greatness even more than it did before. Prior to its descent to Earth, the soul had enjoyed G-d’s radiance. Living a spiritually enriched life magnified that satisfaction exponentially. This is “Heaven”.

On the other hand, if one has lived contrary to G-d’s intentions, then one’s soul feels out of place when exposed to Truth. This soul feels the burning shame of having prioritized the wrong values in life and the agonizing frustration of having wasted so many wonderful opportunities. The distance this soul feel’s from G-d also generates a terrible pain of both loss and alienation. This pain is so intense that the Talmud considers a moment of this experience to be more painful than a lifetime of physical suffering. This is “Hell”.

“Heaven” and “Hell” are the same place. Both Gan Eden and Gehinnom represent the soul’s exposure to G-d and His intention for human life. How a person lived determines whether that exposure leaves them delighted or in pain.

Gan Eden is not a single-level experience. Jewish mysticism distinguishes between the “lower” Gan Eden and the “upper” Gan Eden. Someone who lives up to G-d’s expectations enjoys returning to His presence and settles in the “lower” Gan Eden, a place of pleasure so intense it has no physical parallel. Righteous individuals are those who excel in their soul-mission on Earth to a completely different degree than most. They graduate to the “upper” Gan Eden, where there is such intense Divine radiation and pleasure that even those souls living in the “lower” Gan Eden can never imagine this experience.

Gan Eden is not a static soul experience. Souls in Gan Eden consistently progress, rising from spiritual level to level annually on the soul’s yahrtzeit. The souls of the righteous never rest, says the Talmud, they constantly ascend to higher and deeper levels of Divine appreciation. Soul upgrades are propelled by the good deeds the person performed during his or her life, by relatives saying kadish and by Torah study or good deeds performed by family and friends on their behalf.

Gehinnom also comprises a series of levels. Souls who actively disobeyed G-d experience the Gehinnom of fire, the burning shame of having acted against their own best interests. Souls who were apathetic and never got around to doing what Judaism teaches experience the Gehinnom of ice, where the soul feels lethargic and stuck, while surrounded with endless opportunities. Souls may also experience “Kaf Hakela”, the proverbial slingshot that catapults a soul back and forth between a view of the life it could have lived and the life it lived. This painful juxtaposing of opportunity against reality is therapeutic for the soul and eventually allows it to move on.

Gehinnom is a purification process, borne out of your choices on Earth. It is not G-d’s payback time. Gehinnom is designed to purify a soul so that it can enter Gan Eden. A soul generally needs not more than a year of purifying before it may enter Gan Eden. When mourners say kadish during this time, they ease and expedite the process for the deceased’s soul. A soul has to earn access to Gehinnom, to cleanse it for entry to Gan Eden. Rogue souls are blocked from Gehinnom and often wander in limbo until a saintly person intervenes to assist their progress. A wicked soul can sometimes be sentenced to live as an animal, plant or stone for a time rather than enter Gehinnom.

Gan Eden and Gehinnom are both temporary realities that will become irrelevant when Moshiach comes. G-d will be more exposed on Earth in the Messianic Age than He is currently on High and Gehinnom will be unnecessary in that era.

Our Sages teach that one moment of life in this world is more potent than a lifetime in the World to Come. Rather than worrying over what the next life holds, we would do well to make this life as meaningful as possible.

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