Torah – No Reincarnation, No Hell

When speaking to mainstream orthodox rabbis, one gets the image of a Judaism that believes in reincarnation as an explanation for seemingly innocent people suffering in this world, and a burning hell and damnation for the evildoers who prosper in this world. These become circular arguments which are so outrageous that they make a mockery of logic, as well as the Torah itself.

But it there is strong evidence that neither of these concepts were relevant to the Torah of Moses. In fact, they were added much later on by Rabbis who imported ideas from surrounding religions of Babylon, Persia and India.

In Deuteronomy Chapter 7 דְּבָרִים we see :

9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, He is God; the faithful God, who keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations;

10 and repayeth them that hate Him to their face, to destroy them; He will not be slack to him that hateth Him, He will repay him to his face.

It is v.10 that refutes reincarnation, since the sinners are paid to their face, and God does not hesitate to do this. It is interesting that the rabbis see the term  וּמְשַׁלֵּם  which means to repay, as referring to the reward that the sinners have earned, so as to lose their entire future world! This is not convincing, since the root of the verb is ShLM, which means perfect, hence the verb is describing a compensation for the evil that these people have done. Hence in Ch8, we see:

19 And it shall be, if thou shalt forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I forewarn you this day that ye shall surely perish.

20 As the nations that the LORD maketh to perish before you, so shall ye perish; because ye would not hearken unto the voice of the LORD your God.

If the punishment is the same as the other nations, then it does not mean success in this world in order to be removed from the next!

Postscript:  The title suggests that Reincarnation and Hell are ruled out by Torah. However, it doesn't  mean that they are impossible, perhaps there are different incarnations and stations along the way. The argument I am making is that  there is an explicit statement which points to punishment in the here and now as opposed to the there and then.  We do not have reliable information on what happens to our souls after death.  King Solomon also did not have knowledge of this.