גהינום Gehinom is really a very important subject. After all eternity is a long time to be tormented by demons in hell. Especially for people like me that have a low tolerance for pain. I must have mentioned once before my basic idea of Gehinom [hell] and how to avoid it mainly comes from Reb Israel Salanter and his disciple Rav Isaac Blazzer. In one word it can all be summed up : Midot.
"Midot" means basically what my parents meant by the words "to be a mench." The basic idea is rather simple. Do not lie, do not cheat and do not steal.
[In high school I saw the same idea in one of my favorite books, Dante (The Divine Comedy ), who lays out the structure of Hell quite clearly. Later I saw the same basic idea in the very great Musar book ראשית חכמה [Beginning of Wisdom]. [In the back in the additions, not in the book itself.]
In any case the idea is incredibly simple --have good traits--or else suffer the consequences.
And I have to add that in fact you can see this by implication in the Rambam. He gives the basic reasons for the commandments of Torah, and one is "midot" (to have good traits). The implication is that what is going to matter in the long run--when one arrives at the seat of judgement in Heaven. What is going to matter then is not how strict one was in rituals whose only purpose is to remind one to have good traits. What is going to matter is midot tovot (good traits).
[A great deal of human activity is to get distracted from the all important subject of Hell. That almost everything of what goes on in the world are tricks from the Sitra Akra/Dark Side to distract people from what really matters.]
[In high school I saw the same idea in one of my favorite books, Dante (The Divine Comedy ), who lays out the structure of Hell quite clearly. Later I saw the same basic idea in the very great Musar book ראשית חכמה [Beginning of Wisdom]. [In the back in the additions, not in the book itself.]
In any case the idea is incredibly simple --have good traits--or else suffer the consequences.
And I have to add that in fact you can see this by implication in the Rambam. He gives the basic reasons for the commandments of Torah, and one is "midot" (to have good traits). The implication is that what is going to matter in the long run--when one arrives at the seat of judgement in Heaven. What is going to matter then is not how strict one was in rituals whose only purpose is to remind one to have good traits. What is going to matter is midot tovot (good traits).
[A great deal of human activity is to get distracted from the all important subject of Hell. That almost everything of what goes on in the world are tricks from the Sitra Akra/Dark Side to distract people from what really matters.]
