Heaven – paradise – Gan Eden is seen as a place/state where one experiences oneself devoid of ego, aggression, and resentment, the purity of the transcendence. Conversely, Hell- Gehenom is viewed as a place/state where one experiences the tension of knowing the need to relinquish the tenacious bound with the ego, yet all the while holding on to the status quo and not giving it up. Hell is where a soul that has become entrenched and immersed in materialistic gain and pleasure, experiences the pain of ripping away. Ultimately so that it to can experience the pleasure of basking in Infinites light.
The future is seen a progression of the present. The so called afterlife, is life sans the body and its preoccupation to perpetuate its existence. The question, what will become of us is an extension of the existentialist question; who are we. Everything that exists here exists there in the afterlife, only there it is in an infinite matter, as a wise man once said, “The punishment in hell is that you have for eternity that which you thought you wanted on earth.†If one cased illusionary pleasures in this lifetime, he will continue to do so in the afterlife.
Heaven is where the soul is aware of its unity with its Source, hell is where the soul experiences a distance and alienation from this unity. The Zohar teaches “When a soul is about to leave this earthy realm the Shechinah appears itself, and the soul goes out in joy and love to meet the Shechinah. If the soul is meritorious, then the soul cleaves onto the Shechinah, if not, the Shechinah departs, and the soul is left alone.
A Chassidic tale tells of a wealthy wiser who dies and is immediately ushered into a majestic looking palace filed with gold and silver, the angels who accompany him, inform him, that this is his place for eternity. Whatever his heart desire he gets. One day he desires a perfect spouse, and the spouse materializes, the next day he desires white horses with a golden carriage and that to materializes. Each day he conjures up another fantasy and each day they immediately materialize. Slowly he beings to run out of things to ask, what’s worse he begins to become bored with his lot. One day he asks the supervising angel if could get a look at the other side, if he can see what is going on in hell. Blankly the angel looks at this poor man, and tells him, that he is standing right in the middle of hell.
Yet, there is no “eternal condemnation.†Hell – for the lack of a better word- is not a permanent condition, and no soul becomes permanently trapped in that state, rather, it is a learning station, a process in which a soul eventually graduates.
When a human being passes on, and leaves the physical body, he or she assumes a non-corporeal essence, which consists of their emotions and thoughts. Commensurate to their level of integration during their lifetime, is their astral body. The fate of a person, who has lived a disharmonies and disaligned life, has come to be know as Gehenom – hell. Understandably, hell is not a place somewhere up there, or down below, rather, hell is a state where the soul is not yet able to reach heaven. It is where the soul, operating on a disunited and disingenuous manner is unable to receive the light of the Creator and is thus blinded. Consequently, in the place of beholding the light and basking in its majestic splendor the soul feels in complete disarray.
Heaven is where the soul is aware of its unity with its Source, hell is where the soul experiences a distance and alienation from this unity. The Zohar teaches “When a soul is about to leave this earthy realm the Shechinah appears itself, and the soul goes out in joy and love to meet the Shechinah. If the soul is meritorious, then the soul cleaves onto the Shechinah, if not, the Shechinah departs, and the soul is left alone.
The word for hell in Hebrew is Gehenom – which stems from the word Gai Henom – the valley of Henom. In biblical times just outside Jerusalem there was this valley where pagan Canaanites offered human sacrifice. Later on during King David’s rule these alters were destroyed, and soon afterwards it became a dumping ground where waste was burned. It is thus biblically used as a metaphor for a place were the soul cleanses itself.
Classic Midrashic sources speak of a cleansing of fire and purification through ice. Fire fights fire and ice erases coldness. Clearly, these are metaphors; there is no fire or ice in a world unrelated to the physical. Fire represents passion ice indifference. In the journey through life one can opt to either be passionate for the spiritual or the material, and thus accordingly be either indifferent to the material or indifferent to the spiritual. Once the energy that sustains physical existence has been used up, and the soul journeys on, in order to reach a genuine integration with the Oneness of the Infinite, it also needs to be in a state of oneness.
A 17th century Kabbalist R. Naphtali Hirtz Bacharach equates Gehenom with a sponge. It sucks up all negativity, and thus allows the soul to enter Gan Eden. It enables the soul to operate in a state of purity, oneness and total integration with the Infinite light.
It is empowering and true, that when we deeply desire a glimpse into that universe, a world of infinite vision and delight we need only live life today in an integrated and in harmonious way, and as such experience the future within the present. We have the power to see a world bathed in the infinite, if we but expand our vision and cleanse ourselves and our doors of our perception.
