Ekev
I am often asked whether or not Judaism believes in heaven
and hell. Usually the question is framed
in the following manner. “Rabbi, Judaism
does not believe in heaven and hell, right?”
The answer comes as a surprise to most.
On the contrary, Judaism does believe in heaven, and even hell. Of course with all things Jewish the answer
does not end there.
First of all our terminology is different. We call heaven, olam haba, the world to come
and hell, gehinnom, or as it is sometimes rendered in common parlance,
gehenna. These ideas developed during
the rabbinic period, alongside their development within early
Christianity. Our images for these
otherworldly abodes, however, are different.
Judaism hesitated to codify a description of olam haba and
gehinnom. It left their details to
rabbinic imaginations and preserved disagreements about its contours. Nonetheless it resolutely affirmed these ideas.
Judaism believes that if God is all-powerful and just, then
the only way that the inequities we observe in this world can be rectified is
through the belief in the world to come. There the scales are re-balanced. Olam haba can be an extraordinarily
comforting idea. It offers healing to
believe that in heaven God cares for the souls of our beloved dead.
Still I recognize that there are difficulties with these
ideas. Too often the reward of heaven,
and the punishment of hell, is used to instill fear. I would prefer that people do good for its
own sake. Even more troubling is the
fact that too often heaven becomes the focus of people’s faith and action. The more fervently they hold on to the other
world the more they appear to let go of their engagement with this world. The here and now becomes a mere gateway to a
better, future place. In extreme
instances there even grows a desire to rush to get this other world. Then our fragile world becomes victimized by
this belief. Focus on today rather than
tomorrow!
This week’s Torah portion alludes to this question in raising
the issue of reward and punishment. The
medieval commentator, Rashi, notices an unusual word in the opening of the
portion. “And if you do obey these rules
and observe them carefully, the Lord your God will maintain faithfully for you
the covenant…He will favor you and bless you and multiply you…” (Deuteronomy
7-12-13) The second word literally
means, “On the heels of” meaning as a consequence of and thus Rashi writes: “If
you will heed the minor commandments which one usually tramples with his heels,
i.e. which a person treats as being of minor importance then God will keep His
promise to you.” Even the smallest of
mitzvot can accumulate for good.
The 19th century chief rabbi of St. Petersburg
and a leader of the Mussar ethical movement, Yitzhak Blazer, adds: “A person
must realize that sometimes a negligible action on his part can decide his fate
in this world and in the World to Come.
Imagine a man who comes to a train station and finds that he has only
enough money to take the train to the station before the one where he wishes to
go. Because he is missing those few
pennies, he will be forced to get off the train at the station before his, and
will never reach his destination. The
same is true in heavenly matters: sometimes a person does not take a small
action, and because of that he will lack sufficient good deeds to tip the
scales in his favor.”
Whether or not one believes in heaven, or even hell, a
reminder that even the smallest of actions has lasting impact is always
required. This can be enough to
transform the here and now.