Comments by "Sam Aronow" (@SamAronow) on "History-Makers: Dante" video.

  1. Theology Note! Heaven as a paradise for God's chosen is not a thing in Judaism. The only person taken "to the heavens" is the prophet Elijah, who canonically is still alive up there and waiting to come back. Sheol is a holdover from the Old Gods as the domain of Horon, who later migrated into Greek paganism as Hades, but beyond the oldest parts of the Old Testament, the afterlife only becomes more ambiguous. By the time we get to Second Temple Judaism– i.e. the non-beta version of Judaism– there was open debate as to whether there even is an afterlife. Eventually, the House of Hillel prevailed with its belief that there was an immortal soul, but the fate of that soul was ambiguous, and it's been there ever since. Many schools of Jewish thought even believe in reincarnation, but unlike in Dante's own Roman Catholicism with its universal doctrines and Papal infallibility, Judaism doesn't have any central authority to decide what's what, and every idea about the afterlife out there is emphatically a hypothesis, and nobody claims to be certain. Generally speaking, Judaism teaches that our actions always have consequences in this world, both for ourselves and for the next generation, and that's what's most important. Anyway, shameless plug: if you like what I have to say, I have a channel that's all about ancient Jewish history. Come check it out!
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