Quoted:
Quoted:
I have heard several people express the idea that "Hell" is a Christian notion and not part of the original Hebrew religion.
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You were misinformed then. Hell, or Shoel as it is called, is very much a part of the Hebrew religion.
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http://www.faqs.org/faqs/judaism/FAQ/06-Jewish-Thought/section-9.html
Rabbinic afterlife teachings varied in different places and times, and
was never synthesized into one coherent philosophy. As such, the
different descriptions of the afterlife are not always consistent with
each other. This is especially true for the descriptions of "Olam
Haba", the world to come.
Gehenna is fairly well defined in rabbinic literature. It is sometimes
translated as "hell", but Jews must take note that the Christian
version of hell is different from the Jewish view of Gehenna.
However, for Jews, gehenna--while certainly a terribly unpleasant
place--is not hell. The majority of rabbinic thought maintains that
people are not tortured in hell forever; the longest that one can be
there is said to be 12 months.
Gehennom (lit: the valley of Hinnom, in Jerusalem;
i.e. hell) is the sinner's experience in the afterlife. In other
words, it's the same "place" as gan eiden (lit: the garden of Eden;
i.e. heaven) -- it's the perspective of the individual that makes it
one or the other.
According to the Zohar, after death each aspect of the soul undergoes
a different experience on the afterlife journey. The lower levels of
the soul are purified and purged of physical and emotional
attachments, while the higher levels experience transcendental bliss.
The nefesh temporarily remains with the body in the grave, undergoing
the Hibbut Ha-Kever, the suffering of the grave. Simultaneously, the
Ruach experiences Gehenna for 12 months. "Gehenna is conceived of as a
purification process in which the psychic remnants from the previous
life are purged and transformed. This purgation process lasts only
twelve months and is tormentingly painful in direct proportion to each
individual's lived life experience.
After death the Neshama, since it not subject to being tainted by sin,
goes to Gan Eden Elyon, the Upper Gan Eden, where it experiences
divine reward and bliss. The hayyah and yehidah also return to Upper
Gan Eden immediately after death, and become as one with G-d as is
possible. "Those who have awakened these dimensions of their being are
able to perceive the infinite grandeur of the divine realms, to enter
the everflowing celestial stream - described by the Zoha as the
"bundle of life".
Given all this, what happens to the soul of the nonbeliever? The most
common belief in contemporary traditional Jewish communities is that
all souls go to the after-life. Nearly all, barring a handful or two
in all of human history, eventually end up in Gan Eden (roughly:
heaven), even non-believers.