Interesting, since I’ve heard most of these and had never challenged a few of them (1 and 2). Usually mythbusting involves some evidence it’s a myth. I’m a little disappointed he offers nothing to support his busting, since I’ve heard endless mythbusting busted.
I even checked out #7, and found this:
>> The traditional explanation that a burning rubbish heap in the Valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem gave rise to the idea of a fiery Gehenna of judgment is attributed to Rabbi David Kimhi’s commentary on Psalm 27:13 (ca. A.D. 1200). He maintained that in this loathsome valley fires were kept burning perpetually to consume the filth and cadavers thrown into it. However, Hermann Strack and Paul Billerbeck state that there is neither archaeological nor literary evidence in support of this claim, in either the earlier intertestamental or the later rabbinic sources.[8] Also, Lloyd R. Bailey’s “Gehenna: The Topography of Hell”[9] from 1986 holds a similar view.
There is evidence however that the southwest shoulder of this valley (Ketef Hinnom) was a burial location with numerous burial chambers that were reused by generations of families from as early as the seventh until the fifth century BCE. The use of this area for tombs continued into the first centuries BCE and CE. By 70 CE, the area was not only a burial site but also a place for cremation of the dead with the arrival of the Tenth Roman Legion, who were the only group known to practice cremation in this region.[10]
In time it became deemed to be accursed and an image of the place of destruction in Jewish folklore.[11][12] However, Jewish folklore suggests the valley had a ‘gate’ which led down to a molten lake of fire.
Eventually the Hebrew term Gehinnom[13] became a figurative name for the place of spiritual purification for the wicked dead in Judaism. According to most Jewish sources, the period of purification or punishment is limited to only 12 months and every shabbath day is excluded from punishment.[14] After this the soul will ascend to Olam Ha-Ba, the world to come, or will be destroyed if it is severely wicked.[15] <<
The JEWS believed in a state of purification before ascension???
Well, yes, traditionally. With the exception of the exceptionally evil, whose souls are destroyed.
One source relates:
"The truth hurts. The truth also cleanses and heals. The spiritual pain of gehinom--the soul's pain in facing the truth of its life--cleanses and heals the soul of the spiritual stains and blemishes that its failings and misdeeds have attached to it. Freed of this husk of negativity, the soul is now able to fully enjoy the immeasurable good that its life engendered and 'bask in the Divine radiance' emitted by the G-dliness it brought into the world."
"For a G-dly soul spawns far more good in its lifetime than evil. The core of the soul is unadulterated goodness; the good we accomplish is infinite, the evil but shallow and superficial. So even the most wicked of souls, say our sages, experiences, at most, twelve months of gehinom, followed by an eternity of heaven."