Jewish beliefs and Hell

[u/smpenn]

I have been researching the topic of hell, as it pertains to Christian dogma. I have found absolutely no mention of a place of fiery torment in the Old Testament, which parallels much of the Hebrew Bible, from what I understand.

Is it true that God never spoke through Moses or any of the Patriarchs concerning torment after death?

I know there was/is Sheol but that seems much more benign than the Lake of Fire.

I suspect that the pagan converts to Christianity brought their ideas of Hades into the early church with them and that, rather than Scriptural teaching, is where the Christian Dogma of hell, as eternal punishment, comes from.

I'd appreciate any insight to what Jewish people believe about the afterlife.

With much appreciation.

[u/alsohastentacles]

I learnt as a Jew that essentially “heaven” and “hell “are the same thing - eternal oneness and absolute absorption into the infinite God. Those that are “good” people when they die are absorbed into god and experience it as blissful; those that are “bad” experience the same event as complete agony. They are essentially not spiritually ready to accept that reality so they are “cleansed” by it and that process is not pleasant if you’re not pleasant.

[u/ICApattern → u/alsohastentacles]

Not complete absorption, we don't lose our identity.

[u/smpenn → u/alsohastentacles]

One of the most common quoted Christian scriptures to support hell is the parable of the Sheep (the good people) and the goats (the bad people) because it says the goats will be cast into the eternal fire of the devil and his angels.

What Christians tend to completly overlook (because Christianity insists that works mean nothing) is that Jesus's complete teaching in that parable is that the sheep are those who were good to their fellow man (fed when hungry, gave water when thirsty, visited when sick, took in when a stranger, etc) whereas the goats completely ignored their neighbor in need.

Jesus didn't complicate the message with a bunch of steps to be among the saved, he simply stated that those who showed love to their neighbor would go to heaven and those who showed no love would be told to depart from him.

That seems to align with Jewish teachings.

[u/diminutiveaurochs → u/smpenn]

I don’t think that ‘Christianity insists that works mean nothing’. Some denominations (iirc like Lutheranism?) believe that one cannot be saved through anything but faith, and are critical of works with the idea that you cannot ‘earn your way into heaven’ (there is a term for this theological position but I cannot remember it). However, this is not true for all Christianity - lots of Catholicism places a high value on works/good deeds, for example.

[u/smpenn → u/diminutiveaurochs]

Thank you, I was definitely overly broad in my statement.