“Why Don’t You Just Go to…You Know Where!”

   How can you tell someone to go to hell if you don’t believe in it? It seems not to matter much; many of our co-religionists have no problem telling people to “take a hike.” In fact, when we take a look at the first half of this week’s Torah portion, also a double one called Acharei Mot-Kedoshim, we’ll find something that comes as close to the heat as we can get. And believe it or not, it’s tied into the ancient ritual surrounding Yom Kippur.

   Our YK afternoon service goes into more detail (though fortunately in the context of an overall look at Jewish history), describing the rites the kohen gadol, the High Priest, performs in order to purify himself, his family and the rest of the people. The entire multitude “puts” their sins on a goat (scapegoat) which is taken into the Judean hills and tossed over a cliff. With it go the sins. And that goat and the place together are referred to as Azazel. In Hebrew, leikh l’Azazel is the closest we come to suggest that someone go to hell.

   But there’s more. I’m sure more of you heard the term gehenna/gehennum. This is actually a valley in the back of the Old City of Jerusalem, in Hebrew gei  Khinnam, the valley of someone named Khinnam. Interesting place that valley is. It’s so far down that I’m sure people thought it to be a “hell”-like place, and in the summer it’s hotter than hell. Gei Khinnam was where the garbage was tossed by the Jerusalem inhabitants of old (maybe today as well). 

   In terms of a theological connection, gehenna was a “no-man’s land,” a stopover before souls went to heaven. Truth be told, it’s hard to say if the most reprehensible people actually stopped there. While the exact nature of heaven is up in the air (sorry), the fact that we don’t believe in hell makes it tough to imagine exactly what happens to them (sometimes it makes you feel better to believe in a hell). And this is particularly important during the High Holydays when tradition refers to judgement, “who shall live” and “who shall die.” But religion in general has so many unanswered questions – usually because they are questions for which there are no answers – that this is one more mystery we have to connect to our personal beliefs.

So be judicious in your demand that someone go to hell. S/he might ask, “Well, what do you mean by that?” and should you respond, “Here’s my rabbi’s contact information. Ask him!” well, you know where you can go….right to the internet to look up all the articles you’re sure to find on the subject.