Hell and Heaven

HEAVEN AND HELL: IN CHRIST SHALL ALL BE MADE ALIVE: PROF.M.M.NINAN
later idolatrous kings. Ahaz and Manasseh made their children "pass through the fire" in this valley,
(2 Kings 16:3; 2 Chronicles 28:3; 33:6) and the fiendish custom of infant sacrifice to the fire-gods
seems to have been kept up in Tophet, which was another name for this place. To put an end to
these abominations the place was polluted by Josiah by spreading human bones and sewage and
rubbish. He ordered it to be rubbish dumping place and kept the fire to burn continually, (2 Kings
23:10,13,14; 2 Chronicles 34:4,5). Thus Ge Hinnom, Gehenna (land of Hinnom)--came to denote
as the place of eternal fire. In this sense the word is used by Jesus. (Matthew 5:29; 10:28; 23:15;
Mark 9:43; Luke 12:5) . The rabbinic word for hell, "Gehenna", is thus taken from the name of
a valley of ongoing fire where children were said to be sacrificed as burnt offerings to Baal
and Moloch (Semitic deities) and the place where the rubbish keep the fire burn and which never
goes out.
This will explain the symbolism of the place of Gehenna. According to the Jewish thought, the
average person after death descended to Gehenna the place of punishment. The fire is usually
thought of as a punishment - an intense pain and suffering. The fire was explained also as a
means of purification being burning away all rubbish. Since it is a purification place also, it can be
considered as purgatory where they are purged of their sins and then allowed to enter the paradise
or heaven which is Eden.
As a purgatory, the soul’s are sentenced to Gehinnom for a period limited to a 11-months to get
all the sewage of their spirit burn out before they takes their place in Olam Ha-Ba (Mishnah
Eduyot 2:9, Shabbat 33a A 12-month limit is also reflected in the yearlong mourning cycle and
the recitation of the Kaddish (the memorial prayer for the dead) starting from the day of death.
Hence the post-death rituals - Prayer for the Dead - were very important for the release of the dead
from Gehenna to higher realms after purification..
Most humans are purified by this 11 month period and gets back to Eden.
Only the utterly wicked do not ascend to the Garden of Eden at the end of this year.
Sources differ on what happens to these souls at the end of their l time of purgation.
Some say that the wicked are utterly destroyed and cease to exist; while others believe in
further periods of purification. (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Law of Repentance, 3:5-6).
In other words there is another life period is given to man within the purgatorial Gehenna. Which
is repeated until they are fully refined when they return to Eden.
The scheme of the After death processing in Jewish thought can be depicted as follows following
theology of the various Rabbis.:
Kochba (A.D. 132-35] says, concerning the New Year (Rosh Hashanah):
Rabbi Samrnai teaches this:
that there will be three groups of souls at the judgment:
one of the truly holy,
another of the truly wicked, and
a third in between.
It is immediately written and sealed that the truly holy shall live until the end of time,
and it is likewise written and sealed that the truly wicked shall remain in Gehenna, as it is written
(Dan. 12:2).
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