At the end of Gemorah (Tractate) Sanhedrin, there is discussion of people who are not Zocheh to get into Olam Haba (Gan Eden). Is there a comprehensive list somewhere of people mentioned throughout Talmud and commentaries who have been cursed in this way?
2 Answers
Rambam (Laws of Teshuvah 3:6ff) gives the following list. (All of them are referring to people who know that what they're doing is wrong. The average nonobservant Jew nowadays is in an entirely different category, "tinok shenishba.")
- Minim: people who deny Hashem's existence, or who hold heretical beliefs about Him (basically, who don't accept one or more of the concepts covered in the first five of the Rambam's Thirteen Principles of Faith)
- Apikorsim: people who deny the connections (via prophecy and Divine knowledge) between Hashem and humanity (basically, the concepts covered in Principles 6, 7, and 10)
- Deniers of the Torah: people who deny parts of the Torah or its mitzvos (basically, Principles 8 and 9)
- Deniers of the Resurrection or of the coming of Moshiach (basically, Principles 12 and 13). (I wonder, by the way, where Principle 11, that Hashem rewards good and punishes evil, would fit in this taxonomy.)
- Mumarim: habitual transgressors of a particular mitzvah (when done to provoke Hashem rather than out of passion), or apostates who abandon Judaism entirely
- People who cause others to sin, whether by force or by persuasion
- People who separate themselves from the community (remaining aloof when they are in trouble)
- People who sin openly and brazenly, "like Yehoyakim"
- Informers (who hand over Jews, or their possessions, to non-Jewish authorities who will not give them due process)
- People who lord it over the community and make themselves feared, "not for the sake of heaven" but for selfish motives
- Murderers
- People who speak lashon hara
- People who extend their foreskin (to conceal their circumcision)
Then he lists several other things of which the Sages say that one who habitually does these also loses his share in Olam Haba:
- Making up a derogatory nickname for someone
- Using such a derogatory nickname
- Embarrassing a person in public
- Getting honor for oneself at the expense of someone else's embarrassment
- Treating Torah scholars lightly
- Treating one's teachers lightly
- Treating Chol Hamoed lightly
- Desecrating sacred objects
He concludes, though, that these exclusions are not absolute: one can always do teshuvah as long as he is alive.
Furthermore, there is an extensive discussion in a letter by the Lubavitcher Rebbe zt"l, in which he argues (based on many sources) that even people in these categories who have not done teshuvah still have a way out, just that it is a lot more difficult. But ultimately, "lo yidach mimenu nidach" - no Jew is ever truly lost.
In the Koren Siddur with Rabbi Sacks commentary, it states at the addition at the end of Perek Aleph of Pirkei Avot "Rabbi Chananya Ben Akashia omer" ... that the Rambam says "It is a fundamental principle of the Jewish faith that if a person fulfills even one of the 613 mitzvot fully and properly, without ulterior motive but simply for its own sake and out of love, he merits a share in the World to Come."
now i'm not sure if i answered your question, or created a new one... such as if someone committs one of the above sins but also does mitzvot then what happens to his share in Olam Haba. I have no idea!