Universal Truths: Jewish Roots, Week Three: Hell

[dorchadas]

• Dov Weiss, "scholar of ancient Judaism" wrote Pious Irreverence


• Before hell, the afterlife. In Tanakh, mostly no afterworldly punishment or reward. Everyone goes to Sheol underground and sleep


• Only Daniel has reward and punishment, but in bodily resurrection, not an otherworld. Immortality of the soul shows up later


• Tanakh has no hell. First mention in Book of Enoch, written third century BCE. Later mentioned in rabbinic literature (Mishnah, Talmud, etc)


• "Why did you choose hell?" "Why did Dante, why did Milton? It's a thriller, you know"


• גיהנום Gehennom from Greek Gehenna. Image of flames from Jeremiah


• After chevruta, don't know who goes to Gehennom, how long they stay there, or whether it even exists.


• R. Akiva, wicked twelve months there. That's why Kaddish is twelve months. R. Yochanan b. Nuri, seven weeks of the Omer. Neither of them say Gehennom is eternal


• Tosefta does say Gehennom is eternal, but might be rejected by Mishnah authors


• Shammai and Hillel have three groups: one for eternal life, one for shame and everlasting contempt, and one mixed. Maybe not referring to Gehennom at all?


• What is "resurrection"? Brought back either in original body, or new body made. On Earth. Is the resurrection the reward, or something that happens just before the reward?


• Shammai: Gehenna is a refining fire. People go there and have their flaws burned away like gold in the forge, and then come out purified.


• Hillel: There is mercy, no one goes to Gehenna. The mixed also receive their reward immediately


• Weiss thinks early rabbis were trying to do away with Gehennom, but influence from Christianity caused it to be strengthened again


• "Shame and everlasting contempt" worse than Gehennom? Public shaming is the worst punishment of all


• Heresy only begins in Judaism after Christianity. Was it a useful concept for the rabbis trying to establish a post-Temple Judaism? Heretic = opposing the rabbis? Separation from the community is the worst possible sin


• Reish Lakish, "There is no Gehennom". Another early rabbi reducing power of hell!


• Jerusalem Talmud, back to mostly righteous deeds and mostly wicked deeds. Not about character anymore. Like Anubis with the feather, but Jewish. If 50/50, G-d takes away a bad deed or gives one of his own good deeds!


• Over time, rabbis increase severity and power of Gehennom


• Maimonides says Gehennom is a metaphor! Some souls have eternal life others do not


• "What relevance does this have to your life?" "Oh, I’m a scholar, I don't do that part."


• "It's no big shocker to us that Judaism has texts where we read it and say, 'Huh, that's weird.' "


• Comfort in suffering of wicked? "Maybe I connect with it more than I could three-and-a-half years ago." Fairness


• Gehennom and Book of Life from Yom Kippur?


• Kaddish helps the soul ascend


• Old age, sufferings of dementia etc, like a period of Gehennom


• "Is hell even useful as a concept for the Christians? Is the joke on them? If it's going to make the good people feel bad and the bad people don't care..."


• How much does the motivation of a good deed matter?