The Imperfection Of Teshuvah: Fill & Download for Free

What we believe in is euphemistically called "The World to Come". Not much is taught on it (at least not in easily available and understood sources.) It is not a world as we know it, nor are there beautiful gardens and winged angels playing harps with golden halos around their heads. At the same time- there is no fire and brimstone or eternal damnation and burning in the fires of hell...The world to come is a spiritual realm- souls try to cluster around the pure essence of God, to close to the holy for the sake of being near it- because souls yearn to be as close to God as possible. But it is not as simple as that either. The world to come is not a simplistic realm of one level- in the Talmud, Masechta Chagigah, it is said that the outer courtyards to God's abode has seven levels - each of ascending holiness, each soul wanting to be as high as possible. It briefly states that beyond these levels you have the inner courtyard and abode itself- but stops there with the statement "Beyond here we do not enquire". Maybe it elaborates further in the Kaballah- I have no idea on that.Hell is completely absent from Judaism. There is no devil in Judaism as it is not possible for an angel to rebel (only humans have free will- angels can only perform specific tasks). What is generally misinterpreted as hell is the concept of Sheol or Gehinnom. This refers to the burning the soul feels at the heavenly trial after death.Essentially, we are brought to the heavenly court (God) and judged. Satan (literally the accuser) is the prosecutor and wants to introduce all our sins into the equation. God is merciful, and drops some of the sins before the trial begins (Rambam, Hilchos Teshuvah). After that, the soul basically watches two movies- one is- what your life was- the other, what your life could have been. The soul feels shame at the lost opportunities, at what it could have been vs what it is. It is this shame that feels like an eternity of burning. The burning is not a literal one- it is the burning of shame that it feels at realising how it has transgressed, when it could have been so much more! Think of how, for us with physical bodies, the shame of being shouted at by a parent/teacher/ boss can feel like burning- how much worse for a soul which is a pure being and has no physical imperfections or mental imperfections to give it excuses! But though it states that this "burning" feels like an eternity- it truth, it never lasts for more than 12 months. God is much too loving to give out eternal punishments, just as a loving parent would never punish a child for forever.Does this process differ between Jews/non-Jews? Nope- it is exactly the same except Jews (all of them- even apostates that converted to other religions) are judged by the law in the Torah and everyone else by the Seven Noachide laws.What happens to particularly evil people? Here we are moving into the territory of those who are punished with kares (spiritual excission). In its most simplistic understanding this means the soul is eternally cut-off from God, unable to enter into the world to come. But what that means is debated with two main answers:1) The soul dissipates and is destroyed2) It is forever outside, looking in and regretting its decisions in life.Number 2 is the one that has the most support in the Talmud. There is a story of Onkelos, a nephew of Titus and sorceror who summons the souls of three enemies of the Jews to discuss their fates. If they were still around to be summonsed, then they could not have dissipated- ergo number 2 would be correct. As a side note to this incident, Onkelos repented, converted and became one of the major commentators on the Torah!Of course, this is even further complicated by the Jewish view of the soul. In its most simplistic form (yes, it can get a LOT more complicated!) the soul is seen as containing three divisions: 1) the animating spirit which is tied to the physical and dies with the body 2) The "You" part, the intellect etc which is the linkage between the holy and the spiritual and 3) the Holy spark, that bit of God that is within all of us.Now the purpose of life is to elevate the holy spark, to bring it even closer to God through the "You" part performing positive deeds and moving towards spirituality and away from the animalistic. As such, it is this part which is judged and has the reward/punishment applied to it. Even if the soul is punished with kares, this would only apply to the "You" part, and not to the holy part.

What we believe in is euphemistically called "The World to Come". Not much is taught on it (at least not in easily available and understood sources.) It is not a world as we know it, nor are there beautiful gardens and winged angels playing harps with golden halos around their heads. At the same time- there is no fire and brimstone or eternal damnation and burning in the fires of hell...The world to come is a spiritual realm- souls try to cluster around the pure essence of God, to close to the holy for the sake of being near it- because souls yearn to be as close to God as possible. But it is not as simple as that either. The world to come is not a simplistic realm of one level- in the Talmud, Masechta Chagigah, it is said that the outer courtyards to God's abode has seven levels - each of ascending holiness, each soul wanting to be as high as possible. It briefly states that beyond these levels you have the inner courtyard and abode itself- but stops there with the statement "Beyond here we do not enquire". Maybe it elaborates further in the Kaballah- I have no idea on that.Hell is completely absent from Judaism. There is no devil in Judaism as it is not possible for an angel to rebel (only humans have free will- angels can only perform specific tasks). What is generally misinterpreted as hell is the concept of Sheol or Gehinnom. This refers to the burning the soul feels at the heavenly trial after death.Essentially, we are brought to the heavenly court (God) and judged. Satan (literally the accuser) is the prosecutor and wants to introduce all our sins into the equation. God is merciful, and drops some of the sins before the trial begins (Rambam, Hilchos Teshuvah). After that, the soul basically watches two movies- one is- what your life was- the other, what your life could have been. The soul feels shame at the lost opportunities, at what it could have been vs what it is. It is this shame that feels like an eternity of burning. The burning is not a literal one- it is the burning of shame that it feels at realising how it has transgressed, when it could have been so much more! Think of how, for us with physical bodies, the shame of being shouted at by a parent/teacher/ boss can feel like burning- how much worse for a soul which is a pure being and has no physical imperfections or mental imperfections to give it excuses! But though it states that this "burning" feels like an eternity- it truth, it never lasts for more than 12 months. God is much too loving to give out eternal punishments, just as a loving parent would never punish a child for forever.Does this process differ between Jews/non-Jews? Nope- it is exactly the same except Jews (all of them- even apostates that converted to other religions) are judged by the law in the Torah and everyone else by the Seven Noachide laws.What happens to particularly evil people? Here we are moving into the territory of those who are punished with kares (spiritual excission). In its most simplistic understanding this means the soul is eternally cut-off from God, unable to enter into the world to come. But what that means is debated with two main answers:1) The soul dissipates and is destroyed2) It is forever outside, looking in and regretting its decisions in life.Number 2 is the one that has the most support in the Talmud. There is a story of Onkelos, a nephew of Titus and sorceror who summons the souls of three enemies of the Jews to discuss their fates. If they were still around to be summonsed, then they could not have dissipated- ergo number 2 would be correct. As a side note to this incident, Onkelos repented, converted and became one of the major commentators on the Torah!Of course, this is even further complicated by the Jewish view of the soul. In its most simplistic form (yes, it can get a LOT more complicated!) the soul is seen as containing three divisions: 1) the animating spirit which is tied to the physical and dies with the body 2) The "You" part, the intellect etc which is the linkage between the holy and the spiritual and 3) the Holy spark, that bit of God that is within all of us.Now the purpose of life is to elevate the holy spark, to bring it even closer to God through the "You" part performing positive deeds and moving towards spirituality and away from the animalistic. As such, it is this part which is judged and has the reward/punishment applied to it. Even if the soul is punished with kares, this would only apply to the "You" part, and not to the holy part.

What we believe in is euphemistically called "The World to Come". Not much is taught on it (at least not in easily available and understood sources.) It is not a world as we know it, nor are there beautiful gardens and winged angels playing harps with golden halos around their heads. At the same time- there is no fire and brimstone or eternal damnation and burning in the fires of hell...The world to come is a spiritual realm- souls try to cluster around the pure essence of God, to close to the holy for the sake of being near it- because souls yearn to be as close to God as possible. But it is not as simple as that either. The world to come is not a simplistic realm of one level- in the Talmud, Masechta Chagigah, it is said that the outer courtyards to God's abode has seven levels - each of ascending holiness, each soul wanting to be as high as possible. It briefly states that beyond these levels you have the inner courtyard and abode itself- but stops there with the statement "Beyond here we do not enquire". Maybe it elaborates further in the Kaballah- I have no idea on that.Hell is completely absent from Judaism. There is no devil in Judaism as it is not possible for an angel to rebel (only humans have free will- angels can only perform specific tasks). What is generally misinterpreted as hell is the concept of Sheol or Gehinnom. This refers to the burning the soul feels at the heavenly trial after death.Essentially, we are brought to the heavenly court (God) and judged. Satan (literally the accuser) is the prosecutor and wants to introduce all our sins into the equation. God is merciful, and drops some of the sins before the trial begins (Rambam, Hilchos Teshuvah). After that, the soul basically watches two movies- one is- what your life was- the other, what your life could have been. The soul feels shame at the lost opportunities, at what it could have been vs what it is. It is this shame that feels like an eternity of burning. The burning is not a literal one- it is the burning of shame that it feels at realising how it has transgressed, when it could have been so much more! Think of how, for us with physical bodies, the shame of being shouted at by a parent/teacher/ boss can feel like burning- how much worse for a soul which is a pure being and has no physical imperfections or mental imperfections to give it excuses! But though it states that this "burning" feels like an eternity- it truth, it never lasts for more than 12 months. God is much too loving to give out eternal punishments, just as a loving parent would never punish a child for forever.Does this process differ between Jews/non-Jews? Nope- it is exactly the same except Jews (all of them- even apostates that converted to other religions) are judged by the law in the Torah and everyone else by the Seven Noachide laws.What happens to particularly evil people? Here we are moving into the territory of those who are punished with kares (spiritual excission). In its most simplistic understanding this means the soul is eternally cut-off from God, unable to enter into the world to come. But what that means is debated with two main answers:1) The soul dissipates and is destroyed2) It is forever outside, looking in and regretting its decisions in life.Number 2 is the one that has the most support in the Talmud. There is a story of Onkelos, a nephew of Titus and sorceror who summons the souls of three enemies of the Jews to discuss their fates. If they were still around to be summonsed, then they could not have dissipated- ergo number 2 would be correct. As a side note to this incident, Onkelos repented, converted and became one of the major commentators on the Torah!Of course, this is even further complicated by the Jewish view of the soul. In its most simplistic form (yes, it can get a LOT more complicated!) the soul is seen as containing three divisions: 1) the animating spirit which is tied to the physical and dies with the body 2) The "You" part, the intellect etc which is the linkage between the holy and the spiritual and 3) the Holy spark, that bit of God that is within all of us.Now the purpose of life is to elevate the holy spark, to bring it even closer to God through the "You" part performing positive deeds and moving towards spirituality and away from the animalistic. As such, it is this part which is judged and has the reward/punishment applied to it. Even if the soul is punished with kares, this would only apply to the "You" part, and not to the holy part.