Perspectives: What is Olam Haba?

(8) The LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the man whom He had formed. (9) And from the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that was pleasing to the sight and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and bad. (10) A river issues from Eden to water the garden, and it then divides and becomes four branches.

And the world is one sixtieth of the Garden of Eden, and the Garden of Eden is one sixtieth of Eden itself.

(1) One should not say: "I am performing the commandments of the Torah, and engaging myself in its wisdom so that I will receive all the blessings described therein, or so that I will merit the life in the World to Come; and I will separate myself from the transgressions against which the Torah gave warning so that I will escape the curses described therein, or so that I will suffer excision from the life in the World to Come". It is improper to serve the Lord in such way, for whosoever serves the Lord in such way, is worshipping out of fear....

(21) Alas, she has become a harlot, The faithful city....

(16) Rabbi Yaakov says: This world is like a hallway before the world to come. Fix yourself in the hallway so you may enter the drawing room.

(17) He would say: One hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is better than all the time in the world to come. And one hour of pleasure in the world to come is better than all the time in this world.

(8) The Sages did not call it “The World to Come” because it is not currently present, and this World will disappear, and then that World will come – this is not so! It is present and established, as it says, [Oh how great is your goodness], which you have laid up for those who fear you; which you have done [for those who trust in you, in the sight of the sons of men] (Psalm 31:20). They only called it “The World to Come” because it is the Life which comes to a person after the life of this World, where we exist in body and soul, and which comes to each person at first.

(1) The goodness which is in store for the righteous is the Life of the World to Come – Life which has no Death, Good which has no Evil. This is what is written in the Torah: that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days (Deut. 22:7), and from tradition we learned: that it may be well with you, in a world that is entirely good; that you may prolong your days, in a world that is entirely long; and that is the World to Come. The reward of the righteous is that they will earn this pleasantness and never be cut off or die; and the punishment of the wicked is that they will not merit this life, and will be cut off and die. And anyone who does not earn this life is the dead who will never live, but is cut off in his wickedness and lost like an animal; and this is the “cutting off” that is described in the Torah, as it says, that soul shall utterly be cut off (Numbers 15:31). From tradition we learned: cut off, in this World; utterly, in the World to Come, i.e., that soul which has separated from the body in this world will not earn the life of the World to Come, but will also be cut off from the World to Come.

(5) The punishment for which there is no greater punishment: that a soul should be cut off and not merit that Life, as it says, That soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him (Num. 15:31). This is the abandonment, which the Prophets called, by way of analogy: Pit of Destruction, Abandonment, Hearth, Leech, and all other terms of finality and destruction – because it is finality without restoration afterward, and that which is lost can never be regained.

(7) And how greatly did David yearn and desire for the Life of the World to Come, as it says, Were it not that I believed to see the good of the Lord in the land of the living (Psalms 27:13). And the Sages have already informed us that man does not have the power to grasp it clearly - and there is none that knows its greatness and beauty and might besides the Holy One, blessed be He, only - and that all of the goods that the prophets prophesied to Israel are only matters of the body that Israel will enjoy in the times of the Messiah, when sovereignty will return to Israel. But the good of the Life of the World to Come has no measurement and comparison; and the prophets did not envision it, so that they should not diminish it by that vision. This is [the meaning of] what was said by Yeshayahu, an eye has not seen, God - beside you - [what you] do for the one who awaits him (Isaiah 64:3). This is to say that the good that the eye of the prophet has not seen and that no one has seen besides God, God has made for the man that waits for it. The Sages said (Berakhot 34b), "All of the prophets only prophesied regarding the times of the Messiah, but regarding the World to Come, an eye has not seen, God - beside you."

(1) All Jews have a share in the World to Come, as it says, (Isaiah 60:21), “Thy people are all righteous; they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.” These have no share in the World to Come: One who says that [the belief of] resurrection of the dead is not from the Torah, [one who says that] that the Torah is not from Heaven, and one who denigrates the Torah. Rabbi Akiva says: also one who reads outside books, and one who whispers [an incantation] over a wound, saying, (Exodus 15:26) “I will bring none of these diseases upon thee that I brought upon the Egyptians for I am the Lord that healeth thee.” Abba Shaul says, also one who utters the Divine Name as it is spelled.

The first foundation upon which the entire edifice stands is that God desired a human to consummate the creation of his own self along with all that was created in his universe, for such consummation is both his achievement and his reward: His achievement -- because he alone struggles for this triumph and accomplishes it independently. And his reward -- for in this achievement it is the human being himself who becomes whole and fulfilled forever.