In the Jewish faith is there a Hell?

Question

It's not in the old testament

Answer 1

There is no hell in our faith.

Traditionally, our beliefs on the afterlife are that when we die, we go to Gehenna, which is a place where we atone for the wrongs of our last life (no torture, just teshuva--atonement). The longest amount of time we can stay there is a year. After that, we go on to existence closer to G-d. If we are so evil in our life to not even warrant atonement, our souls either A) stop existing period or B) exist farther away from G-d, but not in eternal torment.

However, Judaism doesn't place much emphasis on the afterlife, as we believe this is the life that matters.

Answer 2

Hell, in the vernacular sense, does exist in the Jewish faith according to this article:

Judaism does have a concept of reward and punishment in the afterlife. However, since words we use bring to mind certain images, particularly “Heaven” and “Hell,” it is better to use the Jewish terminology which comes without the baggage.

When someone dies, the disembodied soul leaves this sensory world and enters “Gan Eden,” the spiritual Garden of Eden (a.k.a. “Heaven”). In the Garden of Eden, the soul enjoys the “rays of the Divine Presence,” a purely spiritual enjoyment dependent on the Torah learning and good deeds done while in a body. Every year on the yahrtzeit, the day of passing, the soul ascends to another level closer to G-d. This gives it tremendous pleasure.

In order to restore the level of purity the soul had possessed before entering the physical world, it must undergo a degree of refinement commensurate to the degree which the body may have indulged itself

Before entering the Garden of Eden, though, every soul must be refined, for it cannot enjoy the Divine Presence to the fullest degree with the pleasures and coarseness of our physical world still engraved on it. These would give the soul poor “reception” of divine radiance, and must be removed.

In order to restore the level of purity the soul had possessed before entering the physical world, it must undergo a degree of refinement commensurate to the degree which the body may have indulged itself. If a person sinned in this lifetime, as most of us do, then, to continue the radio analogy, we have serious interference. This means there is even more cleaning to be done. This cleaning process hurts, but is a spiritual and mental process designed not for retribution, but to allow one to truly enjoy his/her reward in Gan Eden. This cleaning process is called “Gehinom,” or, in the vernacular, “Hell.”

Answer 3

It is in the Old Testament and after research we have found that hell in in the center of this earth and the OT scriptures have pointed this out but do the jews believe that there is a hell? To them hell is the grave..and yet how wrong they are..We also believe that the mark of the antichrist is already here and placed in animals and yet the FDA has approved this device safe for humans in order to be monitured by satillite. Could this be the mark? Go to trumpetmin.org.....

Answer 4

as said, no hell as such.

gahenna is also spiritually a place thats grossly similar to a purgatory type place, where you review your sins and such, but its not infinite, it has a time limit, and *EVERYONE* goes there for at least a moment.
and sheol is literally the grave.

>>"no, but all jews go there anyway "<<
well if that were so then God would not be worthy of any attention, because he would be a liar.

Answer 5

I don't think think they believe in hell. Traditionalists gave the name Gehenna to the place where souls were punished. There seems to be a difference of opinions. For some I think it's simply a matter of being closer or farther away from God after they die.

Answer 6

No, we don't believe in hell or that Satan is evil. Gehena (the place referenced as being hell) is an actual place in Israle where people used to be banished to, and that is where the region's garbage dump is located today.

Answer 7

Jews believe that hell is just a place where you get purified
(by fire) then go to heaven.

Jews think the devil is G-d's secret agent that G-d sends to test us.

Answer 8

No, there isn't.

In fact, in Kabbalah, it is taught that all of creation will one day make it back to G-D, become one with G-D, and that G-D will return to Ayin, that is, the nothingness that is so utterly nothing that to say, 'it is nothing' is to define it and make it no longer Ayin.

Answer 9

Hell, according to many religious beliefs, is an afterlife of suffering where the wicked or unrighteous dead are punished. Hells are almost always depicted as underground. In Christianity and Islam, hell is fiery. Hells from other traditions, however, are sometimes cold and gloomy. In Islam, hell has different parts. The devil, or shaytan is created from fire, therefore he goes to a hell of ice and horrible blizzards. Some hells are described in graphic and gruesome detail (for example, Hindu Naraka). Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell as endless (for example, see Hell in Christian beliefs). Religions with a cyclic history often depict hell as an intermediary period between incarnations (for example, see Chinese Di Yu). Punishment in hell typically corresponds to sins committed in life. Sometimes these distinctions are specific, with damned souls suffering for each wrong committed (see for example Plato's myth of Er), and sometimes they are general, with sinners being relegated to one or more chamber of hell or level of suffering (for example, Augustine of Hippo asserting that unbaptized infants suffer less in hell than unbaptized adults). In Islam and Christianity, however, faith and repentance play a larger role than actions in determining a soul's afterlife destiny.

Hells are often populated with demons, who torment the damned. Many are ruled by a death god, such as Nergal, the Hindu Yama, or some other dreadful supernatural figure (e.g. Satan).

In contrast to hells, other general types of afterlives are abodes of the dead and paradises. Abodes of the dead are neutral places for all the dead (for example, see sheol), rather than prisons of punishment for sinners. A paradise is a happy afterlife for some or all the dead (for example, see heaven).

Modern understandings of hell often depict it abstractly, as a state of loss rather than as fiery torture literally under the ground. Pope Benedict XVI affirmed in a Lenten homily on March 26, 2007 that the Roman Catholic Church and its loyal members retain belief in a literal Hell, a place that "really exists and is eternal".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell

Answer 10

No---the worst punishment that can happen to a Jew---is separation from God--they don't believe in eternal torture.