The Reward for Observing Mitzvot: In This World or In the Next?

Rashi on Leviticus 26:12

והתהלכתי בתוככם AND I WILL WALK AMONG YOU — I will, as it were, walk with you in the Garden of Eden as though I were one of yourselves and you will not be frightened of Me. (Sifra)

Maimonides Hilchot Teshuvah 9:1

Now, after it is known that the reward and the good which we will acquire for observing the precepts and the way of the Lord according to what it is written in the Torah consist of life in the World to Come, even as it is said: "That it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days" (Deut. 22.7), and that the punishment inflicted upon the wicked who abandoned the righteous paths described in the Torah consists of excision, even as it is said: "That soul shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him" (Num.15.31), what is this which it is written throughout the Torah, if ye will hearken you will be overtaken by thus, but if ye will not hearken you will be met with such, and all those things are in this world, for instance, plenty, famine, war, peace, government, oppression, permanency in the land, exile, success in undertakings, its failure, and other similar text in the Covenant? All those things were and will be true, and as long as we observe the precepts of the Torah all the good of this world will overtake us, and as long as we transgress them we will be met by those evil things described therein. Nevertheless, neither are those good things the end of the reward for observing the commandments nor are those evil things the end of the punishment to be inflicted upon one who violates the precepts. For so are all these matters balanced: The Holy One, blessed is He! bestowed upon us this Torah as a tree of life, and whosoever conducts himself after the prescribed order therein, and studies to know it with a complete and upright knowledge, he acquires therewith life in the World to Come.

Ibn Ezra Deuteronomy 32:29

I, EVEN I. Literally, I, I am He. The word I is written twice. For emphasis. Compare, I, even I Literally, I, I. (Is. 51:12). On the other hand, its The meaning of I, I am He. meaning might be, I am He, and I do not change. I, I am always He. I do not change. The latter is the correct interpretation, for God has no co-worker. To whom one can attribute certain acts of God. This clause paraphrases And there is no god with Me. I am He that put Israel to death, and I will bring them back to life. Look, they were not saved.³⁶⁷The Israelites whom God put to death. There is none that can deliver you out of My hand, even you out of My hand,³⁶⁸If it is not a scribal error then I.E. is repeating himself for purposes of emphasis. until I execute My judgment upon you. Many say that we can derive the existence of life in the future world from this verse. See Talmud Sanhedrin 91b; Peshachim 68a, and Sifre on this verse. They offer proof from the fact that Scripture first states, I kill and then, I make alive.According to this interpretation, I kill and I make alive refers to the same person. It similarly reads, The Lord kills, and makes alive (I Sam. 2:6). He brings down to the grave, and brings up (Ibid.) is proof.That Scripture speaks of one and the same person. Others offer proof of the existence of life after death. from: And surely your blood of your lives (nafshotekhem). Nafshotekhem may be rendered, your souls. will I require (Gen. 9:5). This verse proves that man has a soul. Also from And it shall be righteousness unto us (Deut. 6:25); According to this interpretation it shall be implies a future world, for otherwise Scripture employs the present rather than the future tense. for that is your life (Deut. 30:20) in the world to come, The Talmudic interpretation of the clause quoted. See Kiddushin 40a.

and the length of thy days (Ibid.) in this world; The Talmudic interpretation of the clause quoted. See Kiddushin 40a. that it may go well with thee (Deut. 5:16). According to the rabbis this verse alludes to life in the word to come. See Kiddushin 40a. Rabbi Hai Gaon, of blessed memory, says that Scripture had no need to state clearly that a future world exists because it was known by tradition. I believe that [Scripture does not speak of a future world] because the Torah was given to all. It was not given to an individual alone. The topic of the world to come is not comprehended by even one in a thousand, for it is very abstruse. The reward in the world to come is contingent on the nature of the soul. According to Ibn Ezra one cannot understand the nature of the soul unless he has mastered the sciences. “[A]…person who did not study psychology will not understand the five ways in which a human being’s soul is similar to its creator. One cannot know the latter if one has not studied the very intricate sciences dealing with the heavens and the earth” (Yesod Mora 1, Strickman translation, p. 22). The reward Given in the future world. is given for the service of the heart.

The Duties of the Heart

The rewards of the Torah are all supernatural. How else can the meteorological phenomenon of rainfall be dependent upon a certain people observing specific commandments? But the soul is by nature a metaphysical being, and it is not unnatural that it will (eventually) leave the body and this physical realm. Indeed a verse in Psalms (37:34) states this. From the fact that only the wicked who receive karet do not merit a share in the world to come, one can deduce as a matter of course one who is not wicked will indeed receive a share. Hence, there was no need for the Torah to mention the obvious!

Ran Torah commentary on Bereshit

At the time the Torah was given, the nations of the world denied the possibility of Divine Providence. They also asserted that whatever occurred in the world was done out of necessity, not out of Divine choice. The Torah wished to strengthen the concept of Divine Providence as a cornerstone of Jewish belief. Had the Torah mentioned the reward in the World to Come instead of reward in this world, people would have simply persisted in their erroneous belief. Thus, even though the ultimate reward is in the World to Come, the Torah presented a reward that people naturally desire and taught that it is in human power to achieve it.

Rabbi Saadia Gaon Book of Beliefs and Opinions

The nations of the world at the time when Moses received the Torah sacrificed towards the stars and constellations in order to receive agricultural benefit (rainfall). When God gave the Torah, God wished to wean the children of Israel away from these behaviors and therefore emphasized that observance of the laws of the Torah will yield these benefits, whereas any sort of idolatrous worship will produce the opposite result. but God did not need to promise them anything regarding the world to come, for the nations of the world were not promised success in the world to come for their efforts in the first place.

Yehudah HaLevi The Kuzari

The Torah actually does hint at the World to Come. When the Torah writes verses such as "I will be ever present in your midst (Leviticus 26:12) it is referring to the nearness of the Shechinah of God and the virtuous Jewish soul in this world. One can utilize a qal-va-homer and deduce the following: if the soul can cling to the Shechinah even in this world, surely it will be able to cling to the Shechinah in the non-physical World to Come, just as the other false religions promised their adherents bliss in the World to Come, and this is seen from the words of the Prophets of the Bible as well.

Joseph Albo Sefer Ha-Ikarim, Chapter 40

The mundane rewards cited in the tochachah (rebuke) are meant for the Jewish nation as a whole. But the reward of any individual person can only be according to the (sum of his/her) deeds.

The Torah tells us the extent of the love of God for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. If reward in this world was the sum total of the rewards that God would give anyone, how could Abraham claim to have had more success than Nimrod? The latter ruled over the world, whereas Abraham lived as a nomad his entire life. The same point could be made for the other two patriarchs, Isaac and Jacob. It would not do to understand that the blessing that their descendants received would constitute their blessings, for life of the patriarchs, he concludes, is to posit the existence of a World to COme in which the righteous will indeed prosper. The portion in the World to Come was not the exclusive property of the patriarchs; it was (and is) the reward that God promises to all the righteous people through the ages, for they all possess the same Torah.