"Didn't believe me, eh?" Danny's companion retorted as horns sprouted from her head. She licked her lips with a newly forked tongue. "Be content with stories." She hissed.
* * *
Geihinnom was mentioned in the Bible as a valley through which ran the boundary between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The valley also served as the city dump; filled with animal carcasses and the corpses of criminals. It was also the site of Topheth, where child sacrifices were offered to Molech (a demon in the form of a half calf, half ox, or a demon depicted as a man with the head of a bull). Jeremiah prophesized that the valley would become a "valley of slaughter" and a resting place. For the Jewish people, this is hell.
It is assumed in post-biblical literature the connotation of hell is the abode of the dead called sheol. Some Rabbis place Geihinnom in the middle of the Earth; others place it in the sky or beyond "the mountain of darkness."
The form of punishment in this hell is not clearly defined in the Talmud (a collection of discussions and decisions from Rabbis), but it is associated with fire. It has been interpreted that the tradition of punishment in hell is the denial of eternal life.
Moral behavior and attitudes determine one's existence in the afterlife. It is taught that God always offers even the most evil men the possibility of repentance. After such repentance, one can atone for one's rebellion against God's ways by positive action. But the notion of the individual salvation and heavenly existence is not prominent in Judaism. The notion of the afterlife is not well developed in the Old Testament.
The Jewish still hope for the coming of the messiah, who will hand out eternal judgment and reward to all. This hope is largely communal. Aside from individual men, Jews focus on the entire Jewish race and the whole of creation. They believe that final judgments are best left to God.