I have Jewish friends that tell me that the concepts of heaven and hell as an other-worldly place are not a part of their religion. Better, they say, to think in terms of being near to or far away from YHWH. This seems consistent with a Jewish emphasis on what is going on and will go on in the here and now, and perhaps then. How does this construct affect the argument over the original or even the modern meaning of the word hell, in any language?

Well, there are some Jews who roughly have a concept of heaven and hell: Gan Eden and Gehinnom.

According to jewfaq.org:

It is possible for an Orthodox Jew to believe that the souls of the righteous dead go to a place similar to the Christian heaven, or that they are reincarnated through many lifetimes, or that they simply wait until the coming of the messiah, when they will be resurrected. Likewise, Orthodox Jews can believe that the souls of the wicked are tormented by demons of their own creation, or that wicked souls are simply destroyed at death, ceasing to exist.

Gehinnom, on the other hand, is more like a purgatory to most Jews.

I have a Catholic theology professor who thinks the Jews did and do have a concept of at least heaven. Go figure.

Again, we must not confuse modern Jews with ancient Jews. Both, it would appear to me, have a concept of Heaven: it’s where God dwells; but unlike most Christians, to most Jews, Heaven is not a place that can be reached. The earliest Jews did not seem to believe in an intermediate state at all. Later Jews, including first century Jews, for example, the author of the Wisdom of Solomon, seemed to believe in a conscious afterlife.

I note that both commentators appear to believe that there is consequence for sin, and that it is something that is not pleasant to experience.

Jacob’s understandings of consequences do not sound inherently unpleasant.

What meaning “should” we assign to the word in light of a post-modern rejection of the supernatural?

Why completely reject the supernatural? If we reject the supernatural, we might as well reject Jesus’ resurrection, and indeed, our future resurrection.

As for assigning a word to what Jacob seems to be describing, there are a couple words and also phrases I can think of: bondage in sin, slave to sin, bondwoman’s son, sleep, death, living in darkness, and so on; in other words, a state, especially willful state, without God, and more specifically, the pre-baptism state.

As for my understanding of hell, one word: judgment.