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Why Does Torah Talk About Punishment? A Jew, the Torah says again and again, must connect to G‑d from the heart. When you serve G‑d out of fear of retribution, you may be better off than someone who does not serve G‑d at all, but you’re not serving Him from your heart. You are serving Him only to avoid pain. If so, why do you need to know about punishment—whether in this world or in the afterlife and Gehinnom? Why do the classic works on Jewish ethics find it necessary to discuss these things? Simply because you need to know...

Luke 23:39-43; “One of the criminals who were hanged railed at Him, saying, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.’ And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.’ And He said to him, ‘Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.’” (ESV – all emphasis is mine.) Here...