The World To Come – Prepare in This World

The World To Come

Rabbi Pinchas Winston – The World To Come

When the Talmud speaks about the WTC (World-to-Come), it refers to the place that “no eye has even seen except for G–D’s (*Yeshayahu 64:4)” (*Brochos 34b). The Maharal says that this is the reason why such a central concept such as the WTC is not mentioned in the Torah. The Torah is prophecy, what Moshe Rabbeinu was able to envision, and that did not include Olam HaBa (Gevuros Hashem). 

The Leshem discusses the various stages of the WTC, but mostly in terms of the shifting positions of the sefiros as Creation reverses itself. History has moved away from G–D, which is why people can deny His existence. Once Moshiach comes, Creation will start moving back in the direction of its Source, and becoming increasingly more spiritual as it does. But what does that mean for us?

The Zohar his more explicit about what it is going to look like in the WTC, and what will happen once we get there. The sefer “Yesod v’Shoresh HaAvodah” relies upon these sources to encourage people to work hard in life to earn a place there. But it is not clear whether or not the Zohar is to be taken literally, or if it is just speaking about the unexperienced in terms of what we do recognize.

The truth is, we have no idea what to expect after 6000, and it is VERY hard to relate to something you know nothing about. 

[O]ne of the first things Rashi says at the beginning of his Torah commentary is the whole WORLD was made for Torah. He bases himself upon the verse itself and the Midrash. This means that whatever happens in history, every last detail of it and no matter how distant it seems from ANY Torah purpose, is for the sake of Torah.

Only the Jewish people have to wait until the World-to-Come to receive their reward for mitzvos, making what they receive in this world “tzedakah.”

My Jewish Learning

the Mishnah (Sanhedrin 10:1) states that one who denies the resurrection will have no share in the World to Come, upon which the Talmud (Sanhedrin 90a) comments that this severe punishment is meted out to him on the principle of measure for measure; since he denies the resurrection it is only just that he does not rise at the resurrection. In this passage, at least, the World to Come is identified with the resurrection, though it is not absolutely certain that the Mishnah itself identifies the two so closely.

In the Tosefta (Sanhedrin 13:2) there is a debate between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua on whether the World to Come is reserved for Jews or whether this blissful state is the reward of Gentiles as well. Rabbi Joshua holds that “the righteous of all peoples have a share in the World to Come” and this became the official view of Judaism

The Mishnah (Bava Metzia 2:11) rules that if a man’s father and his teacher have lost something, he should first try to restore the article lost by his teacher, since a father brings his child into this world whereas a teacher of the Torah brings his students to the World to Come. In Ethics of the Fathers (4:16) it is said that this world is like a vestibule before the World to Come. “Prepare yourself in the vestibule, that you may enter into the hall of the palace.”

“In the World to Come there is no eating nor drinking nor propagation nor business nor jealousy nor hatred nor competition, but the righteous sit with their crowns on their heads feasting on the brightness of the Shekhinah” (Berakhot 17a). Yet the Jerusalem Talmud (Kiddushin 4:12) quotes the same teacher, Rav, who is so eloquent on the purely spiritual nature of bliss in the Hereafter, as saying that in the World to Come a man will be obliged to give an account and a reckoning before the judgment seat of God for every legitimate pleasure he denied himself in this world.

Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato

Moses Hayyim Luzzatto’s The Path of the Upright, compiled in the eighteenth century, is typical of the other‑worldly approach. Luzzatto begins his guide to holy living with these words:

“It is the foundation of saintliness and the perfect worship of God for a man to realize what constitutes his duty in his world and to which aim he is required to direct all his endeavors throughout his life. Now our Sages, of blessed memory, have taught us that man was created only to find delight in the Lord and to bask in the radiance of His Shekhinah for this is the true happiness and the greatest of all possible delights. The real place in which such delight can be attained is the World to Come, for this has been prepared to this very purpose. But the way to attain to this desired goal is this world. This world, the Sages remark, is like a vestibule before the World to Come. The means by which man reaches this goal are the precepts God, blessed be He, has commanded us and the place in which the precepts are to be carried out is only in this world. Man is put here in order to earn with the means at his command the place that has been prepared for him in the World to Come.”

Luzzatto concludes this section of his work by saying that man is tempted in this life both by prosperity and by adversity and adds: “If he is valorous and wins the battle from every side, he becomes the perfect man who will have the merit of becoming attached to his Creator. Then he will emerge from the vestibule of this world to enjoy the Light of Life.” 

Excerpted and reprinted with permission from The Jewish Religion: A Companion, published by Oxford University Press.”

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* Brochos 34b :

R. Hiyya b. Abba also said in the name of R. Johanan: All the prophets prophesied only for the days of the Messiah, but as for the world to come, 'Eye hath not seen, oh God, beside Thee'. These Rabbis differ from Samuel; for Samuel said: There is no difference between this world and the days of the Messiah except [that in the latter there will be no] bondage of foreign powers, as it says: For the poor shall never cease out of the land. halakhah.com

*Yeshayahu – Isaiah Chapter 64 יְשַׁעְיָהוּ

 וּמֵעוֹלָם לֹא-שָׁמְעוּ, לֹא הֶאֱזִינוּ; עַיִן לֹא-רָאָתָה, אֱלֹהִים זוּלָתְךָ--יַעֲשֶׂה, לִמְחַכֵּה-לוֹ

And whereof from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen a God beside Thee, who worketh for him that waiteth for Him.