Is Satan mentioned in the Torah? And do we as Jews believe in satan/hell?
Satan is mentioned in the Bible, see the first few chapters of Job (and a few other places). However, it’s clear in the verses I cited that he is one of the many spiritual “servants” of G-d, not an adversary. Again, it’s clear in those verses that he’s in charge of giving people tests in their lives. Our Sages say that it’s more nearly correct to think of “him” as the part of a human being that tries to test us, to lead us to do the wrong thing. Our physical desires, our need for honor, etc. These parts of a person are not bad; we couldn’t live normal lives without them. On the contrary, the great success in anyone’s life is if he or she succeeds in bringing all human desires into service to G-d. In our religion, there is only one G-d, not two in competition, and every aspect of our lives (including tests and difficulty) is part of the process of trying to get close to him.
We certainly do believe in hell (and heaven). I think it would be horrid to believe in a world where people’s actions have no lasting consequences, where Hitler can escape all punishment just by dying, and where a great saintly individual will inevitably lose all reward, also by dying. A person might decide, correctly, that in the long run it makes no difference what he does.
The purpose of our lives, as I’ve said, is to grow in our ability to be close to G-d. Every good thing we do strengthens us, and, G-d forbid, every bad thing weakens us. After a person dies, he is prepared to be as close to G-d as he has become able to. “Heaven” is a description for that state, and I can’t say more about it, because no one is going to understand much about it while he lives in a physical body. But I hope you get the general idea. “Hell” is a description of the opposite, where a person feels the lack of his closeness to G-d. Again I can’t say much about it.
Best wishes,
Michoel Reach