The Jewish Doctrine of Hell

Abstract

In a wide variety of introductions to the Jewish religion, Jewish apologists maintain that there is no explicit Jewish doctrine of the afterlife. Chaim Pearl and Reuben S. Brookes, for example, in A Guide to Jewish Knowledge argue that in regard to life after death, ‘Judaism adopted a stand of its own. … Having provided the belief in the deathlessness of the soul, the authoritative teaching of Judaism warns us against useless speculation about the details of the afterlife.’ According to these writers, Judaism is concerned with earthly existence: ‘The Jewish faith teaches us to concentrate all our efforts and energy in conducting ourselves as children of God in this world, here and now.’