An occasion to tell my two favorite stories

Q: Hello, Rabbi!

I'm not sure Hell is real. If God is so forgiving and loving, why would He want to punish "evil" people forever? I think that "bad" people are actually individuals who are suffering from mental illnesses or imbalances, and that we, and God, should have sympathy and compassion for them, and make allowances for their deeds. I understand the concept of the Lord giving us free will, but deeds can get distorted by someone who has a mental problem, and I feel that those people should be exonerated for the suffering that they've caused. Even people like the Hitlers of history should be able to find a place in Heaven. Thank you for your time. Keep up the good work with your column. Respectfully, R from Appleton, Wis.

A: Hello, R!

The thing about Hell is that you need Hell in order for there to be Heaven. You can't have good without bad, love without hate, generosity without selfishness, peanut butter without chocolate. What sense does it make that no matter how we behave, we all have the same fate after death? We love all our children equally but we don't give all our children the same rewards no matter how they behave. God loves the people in Hell just as much as God loves the people in Heaven, but as you acknowledged, God gave us free will to choose our paths through life and some of us freely choose some really crummy paths. It makes sense to me that there is some spiritual accountability for our life work. This is not actually punishment. The Eastern faiths of Hinduism and Buddhism call this karma. It is the belief that our actions matter in some ethically transcendent way. It is not cruel or unloving for God to hold us to account for our lives. It is one important way that love shows itself to be real. Hell is more of a consequence of our lives than a punishment for our lives.

I agree with you that people who are mentally challenged are not morally accountable for their actions, but I do not agree that every evil deed is done by a mentally unbalanced person. Some evil is committed by completely rational evil people. If Hitler finds a place in Heaven I want to go to Hell.

This is one of my two favorite stories:

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Hell is a place where all the people are hungry and they are forced to sit around a big table filled with every kind of wonderful food. They can see the food and smell it. They can even reach out and touch the food and take it into their hands. But their elbows are locked stiff so they cannot bring the food to their mouths.

That is Hell.

Heaven is a place where all the people are hungry and are forced to sit around a big table filled with every kind of wonderful food. They can see the food and smell it. They can even reach out and touch the food and take it into their hands. But their elbows are locked stiff so they cannot bring the food to their mouths.

That is Heaven.

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So what is the difference between Heaven and Hell?

Well, you see, in Heaven the people are feeding each other.

Now do you believe in Hell?

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Q: Please tell me the date your column appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer in which you told your favorite story in which the elder Cherokee Native American taught his grandchildren about life. Thank you I loved that story! -- from J

A: I have no idea which week it was but I have a very good idea of what story it was. It is also one of my two favorite stories:

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A Cherokee Chief took his grandchildren for a walk into the forest. He sat them all down on a big rock and told them this: "My children of my children, I have brought you into the forest to tell you about a war. There is a war going on inside of me between two hungry wolves. One wolf is the wolf of sacrifice, compassion and love. The other wolf is the wolf of selfishness, jealousy and cruelty. I have brought you here to tell you that the war between the two wolves inside of me is the same war between the two hungry wolves inside of each one of you." The children were scared and quiet and then one of them in a trembling voice asked, "Grandfather, which wolf will win?" The Chief hugged the child and said, "The wolf that will win is the wolf you feed."

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My prayer for each of us and for our country ... may we all feed the right wolf.

(Send ALL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad via email at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the author of several books, including "Religion for Dummies," co-written with Fr. Tom Hartman.)