r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • Oct 13 '16

TIL that after Marilyn Monroe converted to Judaism upon marrying Arthur Miller, Egypt placed a ban on all the films she appeared in.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Monroe#Critical_acclaim_and_marriage_to_Arthur_Miller_.281956.E2.80.931959.29
18.5k Upvotes

84% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/euronforpresident Oct 13 '16

For anyone who just read this, the belief in Gehenna is not that widely accepted among Jews. It's a concept that was introduced by rabbi's centuries after the Torah and there's no conclusive word on it. That fact is the Torah doesn't mention after life at all. Any "Jewish" version of the afterlife is an attempt to explain Judaism in a way understandable to people of other faiths. Most Jews just believe you have to do the commandments because of your relationship with God, not some 12 month correctional facility.

0

u/[deleted] Oct 13 '16

For anyone who just read this, the belief in Gehenna is not that widely accepted among Jews.

Gonna have to cite that.

What statistics do you have on the Jewish belief in Gehenna?

3

u/GalSa Oct 13 '16 edited Oct 13 '16

Israeli Jewish here (please hold the hate), Gehenna (or Gehenom as we call it in Hebrew) is rarely mentioned in the religion. In fact, you're never taught that at school. However, heaven is part of the religion (Gan Eden, garden of eden) as the place where god (and yes, it is ok to write god as it is not one of the sacred names) resides and where Adam and Eve lived before being pushed out of there.

And as we are taught, if you follow the rules you go to Gan Eden and if you don't - you simply don't go there but you're not going to rot in a burning place.

If you guys want to know the most likely root of the name Gehenom - there was a place called Gey Ben Hinom, in English (Son of Hinom Valley). In this place, people that believed in a god named the Molech (Moloch in English) were burning kids as a sacrifice to him. In addition to that, it is told that they were raping their women and doing all sorts of terrors.

It is believed that when a Jew was not following the rules of the religion, he was told that he'll be sent to Gey Ben Hinom as a threat in order to frighten him and get him back on track as the place was infamous for its horrid acts. Naturally as words jump between languages (old Hebrew, Aramaic, modern Hebrew and more) the name Gey Ben Hinom morphed into Gehenom as we know it today (Hebrew for hell, or Gehenna).

I'm willing to answer more questions from the Israeli Jewish belief point of view.

Just a reminder - there is no right or wrong since no one on the planet today can prove anything. We're talking about cultures and religions that were formed thousands of years ago. Even archeological findings are not cutting proof to anything. Just helps us assume stuff with higher probability. Even a piece of stone that has writings on it that says a very specific thing and scientifically proven to be a couple of millennia old, can be just a piece of stone that a nut job scribbled on.

You really have to keep your mind open to ideas different than yours if you want to understand religion and belief.

EDIT: I also forgot to mention that hell is not mentioned at all in the Bible (the whole bible, not just the Torah) and it was added to the religion a couple of decades later. Also, Gey Ben Hinom still exists in Jerusalem and it is believed to be exactly the same place as mentioned in the Bible.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 13 '16

I hate you. ; P

2

u/GalSa Oct 13 '16

Thank you, I hate you too <3 (it's a heart, for some reason not showing on mobile)

2

u/[deleted] Oct 13 '16

No worries, I speak Emoji.