Apostate Jewish man tries to sell his 'place in Heaven'

Friday, May 31, 2013 |  Israel Today Staff  

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Ari Mendel, a young Jewish man from the US who decided to turn his back on Judaism, tried to make a little money in the process by selling his "place in Heaven."

Mendel turned to the online marketplace eBay to offer his place in Heaven, including all the benefits Mendel believed himself to have acquired due to good deeds.

Mendel wrote in the details of the eBay sale that over the course of many years at yeshiva (Jewish seminary), he had done many "good deeds" before falling away from the "right path."

Mendel claimed he was conducting the sale to help others who might not have lived such a good life. Despite his claimed falling away from faith, Mendel asserted that "surely my place in Heaven is worth something."

In a statement that appeared to cross several socially-acceptable lines, Mendel invoked an anti-Semitic stereotype by demanding potential buyers not be "stingy Jews," and bid a reasonable price for what he insisted was so costly a reward.

By the time eBay put an end to the madness, bids for Mendel's "place in Heaven" had reached in excess of $100,000 USD. eBay officials halted the sale, stating that "the afterlife is not a tangible thing, and therefore cannot be sold."