I have no religion yet and I am 15. My parents decided when i was born to let me pick my own religion but I cant decide. Is it possible for me to go to hell because I dont have a religion? I beleive in god and everything but it seems everytime I start to learn something about a religion it either scares me or I disagree with something. I feel so confused.
Yep that's true Jews don't have a hell... one of the things I really like about us.
I dont understand this... how is it that Jews do not belive in Hell?? It IS written in the Old Testament??
(sorry if this portrays a severe lack of intelligence on my part when it comes to this matter.... but my understanding was that Jews are followers of the Old Testament... and I KNOW that "Hell" is mentioned there.....????)
I dont understand this... how is it that Jews do not belive in Hell?? It IS written in the Old Testament??
(sorry if this portrays a severe lack of intelligence on my part when it comes to this matter.... but my understanding was that Jews are followers of the Old Testament... and I KNOW that "Hell" is mentioned there.....????)
No actually hell it not mentioned in the Torah. A land of the dead called Shaol is mentioned, where people go when they die, basically as sort of a "holding place" while they wait for the Messiah. But it's not a place of punishment and suffering; more like a kind of limbo or a spirit realm. According to archaelogists, it's supposed to be a carry over from the Hebrew people's tribal ancestry (the belief is common among ancient tribes throughout the world). I think Christians interpret this in-between place as hell, probably because there's lots of mention of hell in the New Testament, and Greeks, who St. Paul was influenced by, had a belief in Hell (Hades). But Jews have never thought of it as hell, even as far back as Maimonides, Rashi and Rabbi Akiba, Jewish scholars have never interpeted that way.
It's also kind of interesting that Jews don't consider the Old Testament all one book, in the sense of, every part of the Old Testament being as important as another. The Torah actually only consists of the first 5 books of the Old Testament, and the Torah is the highest in the "hierarchy". The psalms, proverbs, writings of the prophets, etc, are still somewhat important, but are considered lesser books. Much of the Jewish faith is based soley on the Torah (first 5 books) and the Talmud (the commentary on the Torah).
Oh btw I'll see if I can find a good rabbinical explanation for you, too... online somewhere. I'm kind of rusty on all the details and don't consider myself a scholar at all!!!
Well when Moschiach (the Messiah) comes, he is supposed to change the world so that it is a perfect place, a kind of Utopia. Then I guess everyone will live together in this perfect world.... "The World To Come" is what Hasidic Jews call it. I'm not sure what happens to really bad people, such as a Hitler or an Idi Amin, but my biological mom used to say that those people simply cease to exist, and have no descendents. I think that's why some Hasidic Jews say "may his name be erased" right after they say the name of someone like Hitler.
Anyways sorry I can't elaborate anymore than that. I'm still going to look up a website for you.
The other thing to remember too is that within Judaism there are LOTS of different groups, just like Christianity. So some Jews might disagree with what I've said, believe differently, etc... but I'm pretty sure none of us believe in hell.
no problem at all.... sorry to go off topic a little here but that IS fascinating!!! I have never heard of that before. The closest I have come to learning the Jewish faith was from Masionic (?) Jews or "Jews for Jesus" ...you know, the people of the Jewish faith that believed Jesus was the Mesiah. My ex-girlfriends family followed this.
I never gave a lot of credit to this because they followed a lot of the old traditions of the Jews but still believed Jesus was the Messiah... even tho Jesus disspelled some of the old beliefs.
If you can even just give me a good website resource, I would be more than thankful!!
I found something at wikipedia that is an explanation of the Jewish concept of sin, which might be interesting to you, and might explain a bit about the hell discussion. Incidentally, Jews don't believe in Orginal Sin, either. The belief is that the soul is born pure, with inclinations to good and evil. So you aren't born a sinner exactly. Anyways here's the link:
no problem at all.... sorry to go off topic a little here but that IS fascinating!!! I have never heard of that before. The closest I have come to learning the Jewish faith was from Masionic (?) Jews or "Jews for Jesus" ...you know, the people of the Jewish faith that believed Jesus was the Mesiah. My ex-girlfriends family followed this.
Not meaning to offend anyone here, but most Jews consider Messianic Jews to not be Jews at all, but rather Christians "posing" as Jews. Jews generally have a very low opinion of them, and think they're deceiving people and "tricking" them into becoming Christians, especially immigrants from Russia, etc, who don't speak much English and are ignorant of Jewish customs. In fact there's even a Jewish retalitory group against the Messianics called "The Jews for Judaism". Personally though I don't care too much either way as I am an agnostic. But I do understand the sentiment.
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If you can even just give me a good website resource, I would be more than thankful!!
Oh well yeah I can give you a good site... I think that will be easier for me, haha. Aish HaTorah is an Orthodox Jewish website, but it's very extensive and good. They also have an "Ask the Rabbi" feature, so you could post a question or search through previous questions. And they have free email courses that you can take on various aspects of Judaism. Torah.org is another good site where you can learn a lot through browsing and email courses. Hope that helps!
This is interesting and I never knew this (or maybe just forgot). I am still a little fuzzy on what the Jews believe about where sinners (or Gentiles for that matter) are going? However, this may not be the thread for this discussion since animeluver06 is seeking a religion. This may just confuse him more, unless he is finding this interesting.
Yeah I think maybe in all fairness to animeluver, we should probably start a new thread. But to answer you question briefly, as far as I know Christians and any other religion for that matter are treated the same way as Jews... they don't receive any less "reward" for not being Jews. I guess that's why Jews don't actively try to convert others, because no one needs to be a Jew in order to be saved or whatever. Anyways, Orhtodox Jews talk about the "righteous gentiles", and basically all you need to be one, is to follow the last 7 of the 10 commandments. Gentiles don't have to follow the first 3, because those have to do with the Jewish G-d. Anyways I always thought it was a pretty good deal... gentiles only having to follow 7 commandments whereas Jews traditionally have to follow 613! Not fair!
But I do understand the sentiment.
Aish HaTorah is an Orthodox Jewish website, but it's very extensive and good. They also have an "Ask the Rabbi" feature, so you could post a question or search through previous questions. And they have free email courses that you can take on various aspects of Judaism. Torah.org is another good site where you can learn a lot through browsing and email courses. Hope that helps!
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