Asking the right questions about Purgatory

Maybe we are thinking of it the wrong way.
Check out,2 Maccabees 12:42-46 (remember, historically 1 and 2 Maccabees WERE historically in even Protestant Bibles, if, nothing else, it does give evidence that at least some Jews prayed for the dead...they still do) Matthew 5:25-26, Luke 12:27-59, 1 Corinthians 3:15, Revelation 21:27