Do Hassidic Jews believe in hell?

Orthodox and Hassidic Jews believe in a hell that is unlike the Christian hell.

It is a temporary place where the soul is cleansed before it enters heaven.

As for the book you are reading, remember that it is fiction.

No form of Judaism believes in Hell. The closest we come to it is a temporary purification period where the soul burns with shame, not physical fire.

"The Chosen" is not a good book to learn about Judaism from- it has some egragarious errors about Judaism in it and very badly portrays the chassidishe lifestyle. The "bringing a child up in silence" he uses there has not been known in the chassidishe world for well over 150 years, and even before that was virtually never done- yet he includes it in a contemporary book as if it were a common thing! If you want to learn about Judaism, read a non-fiction book written by someone authoritative, not a fiction book by an author who makes a lot of mistakes on his subject matter.

Jews don't believe in Hell as it is in Christianity. Hell as a place for "sinners" to go for all eternity is a purely Christian idea.

It depends on how you define "hell."

The way Christians define hell is that it is a separation from God.

Being that the Tanach teaches this concept, the Jews that believe in the Tanach would say they believe as the Christians. Those that believe in the Talmud would make something up like the Talmud and say that all Jews believe this.

So it really depends on whether the Jew believed in the scriptures compiled when Jews could hear the voice of God or believe in the creation of men compiled after they stopped hearing the voice of God during the age of the rabbi.

For example:

kismet, expert in Judaism since birth says,

***It is a temporary place where the soul is cleansed before it enters heaven.***

This concept is not found anywhere in the Tanach (also known as the Old Testament) and, therefore, was made up by men who couldn't hear the voice of God sometime after Solomon's Temple was rebuilt and renamed Herod's Temple.

Hope this helps

I vaguely remember the comments from the book. It was rhetorical, just a comment using current terminology in English -- not a religious reference at all.

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Itkiak

Your thinly veiled contempt of all Jews & claim that we aren't "real" Jews, is showing through. For others the "Hebrew Israelites" are a racial hate group with a history of arrests & much interest from the FBI, who believe "they" as blacks are the "real" Jews & semitic Jews aren't. Israel's in the Middle East, not Africa.

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Ahh, we have a few Christian answers that have a problem with Judaism. Tall tales they tell of mysteries that Jews have never heard of in their own religion. Hum.

answer: Kismet and Cher are actually Jews. The "quote" provided by another anti-Jewish ranter is intentionally a misquote, something they do repeatedly.

answer: no, there is no concept of eternal hell. For those who aren't righteous enough upon death to be with G-d spend some time away from Him. This isn't eternal.

Hey this is great the whole gang is here today!

You will find just about all the beliefs of Jews in a slightly different context in Christianity. You will even find Original sin for example. Instead its called "Bread of Shame" and is used to explain the nature of mankind after the fall of Adam (Hasidic Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag). Sadly few will admit it here....

Hope this helps too.....

Yes...they believe in hell cause they try to make life a living hell for anyone that does not believe the same way that they do! I lived in Israel for awhile and they run around with imitation locks on the sides of their heads pretending that they are the descendants of the legendary Hebrew Israelites. Knowing full well that they are the children of Ashkenaz son of Japheth (European). Abraham was son of Shem. Read Genesis chapter 10 and learn your real history. It has nothing to do color...but everything to do with TRUTH. No white person ever came from Africa. Israel is northeast Africa.