Variety of Hells

[And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awaken, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt (Daniel 12:2, NRSV).]

3. Beth Shammai says: There are three groups: One to eternal life and one to shame and everlasting contempt. The latter is for the completely wicked. Those that are evenly balanced between righteousness and wickedness descend to Gehenna and scream out, and rise up from it and heal, as it is said: I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name (Zechariah 13:9, NRSV) and I will be God to them. And concerning them, Hannah said: The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up (1 Samuel 2:6, NRSV).

But Beth Hillel says: Abounding in kindness (Exodus 34:6)—He inclines toward kindness. And it was about them that David said: I love the Lord, for he listens (Psalm 116:1), and that entire section is about them.

4. The sinners of Israel with their bodies and the sinners of the nations of the world with their bodies descend to Gehenna and are judged there for twelve months. And after twelve months, their souls are extinguished, and their bodies are burned, and Gehenna absorbs them, and they become dust, and the wind blows them and deposits them beneath the feet of the righteous, as it is said: And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, said the Lord of Hosts (Malachi 4:3 [Heb., 3:21], NRSV).

5. But the heretics, apostates, informers, Epicureans, and those who deny Torah, and those who separate themselves from the ways of the community, and those who deny the resurrection of the dead, and all those who sinned and led the public to sin, like Jeroboam and Ahab, and those who instill fear in the land of the living, and those who extend their hands illicitly to the Temple—Gehenna is locked before them, and they are judged there for generations upon generations, as it is said: And they shall go out and look at the dead bodies of the people who have rebelled against me; for their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh (Isaiah 66:24, NRSV).

Sheol will be worn out, but they will not be worn out, as it is said: And their form will outlive Sheol (Psalm 49:15). What caused this for them? Because they extend their hands illicitly to the Temple, as the verse continues because of his lofty habitation (ibid.), and “lofty habitation” always refers to the Temple, as it is said: I have built you a lofty habitation, a place for You to dwell forever (1 Kings 8:13).