You're viewing a single thread.
The old testament did not even mention hell and thus Jews don't believe it. Hell is a Christian invention to control the masses through threat of eternal damnation for disobeying the authority.
i'm not believing that since i remember reading that the concept of heaven/hell is essentially the idea of dualism that is older than judaism itself, even, at least dating back to zoroastrianism, which existed in the middle east already at the time that judaism was formed.
There are things the human mind tends to come up with again and again.
Judaism is older than Zoroastrianism with the added caveat that what constitutes Judaism changes with time as modern Rabbinical Judaism and Priestly Judaic practices aren’t identical (The destruction of the second Temple in Jerusalem by Rome leads to the Rabbinical movement)
The concept of an afterlife consisting of Heaven and Hell absolutely existed in Judaism prior to Christ.
That was the primary difference between the Pharisees and Sadducees. Pharisees believed in more of the supernatural and the afterlife, whereas Sadducees were a political class of priests with no interest or belief in the supernatural.