Please educate me about Judaism?

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Davey Boy Smith #1 Fan- VACATION

The burning hell with torment in fire for eternity is a christian invention. God uses the afterlife to provide ultimate justice and for the wicked to seek some sort of final redemption.

We are focused on life and how to live it on earth, and to make it a heaven by loving our neighbor, which is really hard sometimes, or we can make it a living hell here on earth. We don't believe that Hell is a punishment, but a process of refinement for the soul to rinse free of all the wrong choices and so that it can enter a state of paradise.

In world war two, many who experienced the holocaust by the Nazis with the atrocities, "Now that was really HELL" and now their souls are in "Heaven"

Yes, we study and believe the Tanach (Old Testament)
No, the Tanach does not talk about "a hell of torment with fire for eternity"

That idea comes from Constantine who used that method to scare people into converting to christianity. Many of the beliefs are from Zoroastrian mixed with the New Testament (which we call the christian Bible) That is why Jews don't believe in hell.

The Jewish movements that you mention are different forms of Jewish religions. They are divided groups and all don't agree on the same belief. Some don't even believe in G-d.

Nadine P

I just want to say that Davey Boy has it right. The thumbs down was from someone who just didn't like what he said. It happens all the time when a Jew answers a question and states the Jewish position on something.

Michael J

The after life in general is not mentioned in the Old Testament. As such, all speculation thereon is more philosophical in nature than dogmatic. Some Jews thus don't believe in an afterlife, or hell or what have you. In general, there is a concept of the afterlife and there is a concept of hell, though eternal damnation is rejected.

Hatikvah JPA

First off, it's not the "Old" Testament. Our Bible is the Torah which means "instruction," hence instructions for life here on earth -- not for the afterlife. Just because Christians have a "New" Covenant, doesn't mean that God reneged on His Covenant with Israel.

Some people interpret Gehinnom and sheol as hell. The root of the Hebrew word sheol means "question." Therefore, when one dies, they go down into the "unknown." No one has been there and returned to tell us about it.

The Valley of Gehinnom is just outside the walls of Jerusalem. It's a place where the homeless and unfortunate lived. It was not a place anyone would want to spend much time, but they were all living human beings. Today it has been converted to a small park.

The Christian concept of hell and satan was borrowed from the dualism of Zoroastrianism. Google it. There are still Zoroastrianists today.
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Wrath of God

Jews believe in Sheol ( the underworld)...not really Hell.

Heaven and Hell are borrowed from Zorostrianism and are more prevalent in Islam and Christianity.

Davey Boy should get thumbs up, what he said is beautiful.

I am not Jewish so I believe if people don't repent they will burn in hell for eternity.

Mr. X

we don't believe in hell in the christian sense. there's no devil, no suffering for sins, no condemnation.

judaism believes in 7 levels of heaven. the top level is where god hangs out. you rise as high as you can based on your life on earth.
so in a general sense there is judgement, but it's not about sin, it's closer to the idea of karma.

Ivri Anokhi

It was the Prophet Muhammad himself who attempted to negate the positive image of the Jew that had been prevalent earlier.

According to historian Bernard Lewis, the Prophet Muhammad's original plan had been to induce the Jews to adopt Islam; when Muhammad began his rule at Medina in AD 622 he counted few supporters, so he adopted several Jewish practices-including daily prayer facing toward Jerusalem and the fast of Yom Kippur-in the hope of wooing the Jews. But the Jewish community rejected the Prophet Muhammad's religion, preferring to adhere to its own beliefs, whereupon Muhammad subsequently substituted Mecca for Jerusalem, and dropped many of the Jewish practices.

Three years later, Arab hostility against the Jews commenced, when the Meccan army exterminated the Jewish tribe of Quraiza. As a result of the Prophet Muhammad's resentment, the Holy Koran itself contains many of his hostile denunciations of Jews and bitter attacks upon the Jewish tradition, which undoubtedly have colored the beliefs of religious Muslims down to the present.

Omar, the caliph who succeeded Muhammad, delineated in his Charter of Omar the twelve laws under which a dhimmi, or non-Muslim, was allowed to exist as a "nonbeliever" among "believers." The Charter codified the conditions of life for Jews under Islam -- a life which was forfeited if the dhimmi broke this law. Among the restrictions of the Charter: Jews were forbidden to touch the Koran; forced to wear a distinctive (sometimes dark blue or black) habit with sash; compelled to wear a yellow piece of cloth as a badge (blue for Christians); not allowed to perform their religious practices in public; not allowed to own a horse, because horses were deemed noble; not permitted to drink wine in public; and required to bury their dead without letting their grief be heard by the Muslims.

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1986

The Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Karaite, Chasidic and many other movemants are other forms of Jewish Religions as Davey boy puts it. As a matter of fact not all of them believe in the Tanach which is the Old Testament in the Bible to be from G-d because some of those movements don't believe in G-d. So the word Hell in not part of the Tanach, and we don't believe in the same kind of hell the christians do.

Mimi-×ž×™×ž×™- Ù…ÙŠÙ…ÙŠ

"Jews believe in the immorality of the soul--an immorality whose nature is known only to God--but they no longer accept the literal idea of heaven and hell. There was a time when heaven and hell were accepted in Jewish theology, but even then, rarely as physical entities. A soul tormented with remorse for misdeeds was "in hell"; a soul delighting in a life well lived was "in heaven." The twelfth-century philosopher Maimonides opposed the idea of rewards and punishments for behavior; the reward for virtuous living, he said, is simply the good life itself. (Maimonides makes this point in his later writings. He gives a more literal interpretation of the hereafter in his "Thirteen Principles," written at the age of twenty. Thus, Judaism can be said to have two concepts of the hereafter--on sophisticated and philosophical, the other relatively simple.)"

Religions in America, p.105

vansemmanuel

We don't believe in the hell because we believe Hashem (g-d) wouldn't give us harsh treatment at death.Now that doesn't mean we are punished for our sins.But it isn't a long term full eternity punishment.

Happy Simchat Torah

edmund t

Does the idea of not being punished for sins affect daily life? I mean since you are the chosen people and you can't go to hell why even consider treating your fellow man as equals, right?

Janice

Hello,
My dad is Jewish and he does not believe in a Heaven or Hell. He believes that when you die, that is the end.

Knee

I don't know, but we believe it does exist (sort of) as "Gehenim". I heard once that an evil person would only go there for a while, untill their sins are "paid for", then go to "Shamayim" or Heaven. Only CRAZY EVIL people stay.

Try looking on http://chabad.org for more insight.

paperback writer

- The different groups, such as Reform, Orthodox etc, really just differ in their level of commitment to keeping the Jewish laws.

For example, in a Reform synagogue, things can be more relaxed: men and women can sit together, and the service will be in both English and Hebrew. Many people will drive to the synagogue, even on Shabbat(Friday night and Sat day) when we're not meant to.

In an Orthodox synagogue, the rules will be adhered to more strictly. Men and women sit separately, there will be usually less English in the service, and more people will walk to the synagogue - though I have an Orthodox synagogue very near where I live and I watch plenty of people driving there!!!

But all of these different groups are still following the same religion. We all follow the Old Testament, none of us believes that Jesus was anything more than a man, and we all celebrate the Jewish festivals and holy days, though of course the more religious will go to synagogue more frequently.

I've tried to simplify it, rather than giving details of all the various groups; hope this was a bit helpful.

You've had some great answers about hell already; all I would add is that, the way I understand it, for Jews 'hell' really equates to distance from G-d.

Judaism is very much a religion that emphasizes the here and now, and living a good life in THIS life, rather than thinking about what might come afterward.

Unknown

Why do you want to know about Judaism? Is not worthy.

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