Do Jews believe in hell?
Jews do not believe in eternal damnation, because it has no purpose. What’s the point of making someone suffer forever and ever? Eternal pain is just cruelty, and there is no cruelty in Judaism.
What do we believe? We do believe in a hell, but it’s not payback from God. It’s a process. Hell means the process of burning away the bad in a person to bring out the good. Then, once the soul is only good, the soul leaves hell and goes to heaven. The purpose of hell is to prepare the soul for heaven.
If someone is all bad, they don’t go to hell. They don’t deserve it.
Judaism and pointless cruelty are not compatible. They cannot coexist. We need to dump ideas that promote it.
