{"id":174,"date":"2013-12-29T06:17:14","date_gmt":"2013-12-29T14:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/derechhashem.wordpress.com\/?p=174"},"modified":"2013-12-29T06:17:14","modified_gmt":"2013-12-29T14:47:14","slug":"derech-hashem-134","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/2013\/12\/29\/derech-hashem-134\/","title":{"rendered":"Derech Hashem 1:3:4"},"content":{"rendered":"

The class can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There was to be a fundamental difference between our worldly experience and our Afterlife one [1] — between the environment in which we struggle toward growth and perfection known as Olam Hazeh<\/i> (\u201cthis world\u201d), and the one in which we reap the fruits of our labors known as Olam Haba<\/i> (\u201cThe World to Come\u201d) [2].<\/p>\n

This world would need to be set-up in such a way that the inner struggle between the soul and the body [3] could go on. That way materiality wouldn\u2019t automatically hold sway over spirituality; and spirituality wouldn\u2019t automatically dominate materiality. And while the latter would seem to be a good thing [4] it actually isn\u2019t, given that our goal of achieving spiritual perfection and drawing close to G-d on our own would be thwarted [5]. And The World to Come needed to be the environment in which spirituality does indeed hold sway over materiality [6].<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As we indicated in note 3 to 1:3:1 above, we\u2019re talking here about the ideal — the reality in place before Adam and Eve sinned. The equation was altered and the delicate balance of power between spirit and matter shifted after that, as we\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n

[2]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, there are two usages of the term \u201cThe World to Come\u201d in the tradition. The first one, championed by Rambam (Maimonides), is used to depict the place the soul goes to after death for reward or punishment (Hilchot Teshuvah<\/i> Ch. 8); while the second, as used by Ramban (Nachmanides), is the place that (nearly) all will go to after the Messianic Era, the Great Day of Judgment, and the Resurrection of the Dead for eternal reward (Sha\u2019ar HaGemul<\/i>). Both can be termed the Afterlife.<\/p>\n

Since death and reward and punishment hadn\u2019t yet entered into the picture, as we\u2019re talking about the time before Adam and Eve sinned, as indicated above, the term Olam Haba<\/i> discussed here<\/i> is clearly the one that Ramban addressed.<\/p>\n

See Da\u2019at<\/i> Tevunot<\/i> 88 for a full discussion of the stages in which the body and the soul respectively hold sway; also see Da\u2019at<\/i> Tevunot<\/i> 126. And see 1:3: 10, 13 below.<\/p>\n

[3]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ramchal characterizes the soul here as (the seat of) \u201creason\u201d as he did in 1:3:2.<\/p>\n

[4]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Since it would allow us to arrive at spiritual perfection effortlessly and quickly.<\/p>\n

[5]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So it would detract from our freedom of choice and cheapen our spirituality in the end.<\/p>\n

[6] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ramchal adds an interesting remark at the end. He depicts this world as a place \u201cwith the sort of natural<\/i> laws that humanity would need\u201d there, and The World to Come as the place \u201cwith the sort of laws that humanity would need\u201d there, without saying what kind of laws or ways there\u2019d be there (though he\u2019s clearly referring to supernatural<\/i> laws).<\/p>\n

In essence, that says that each world has its own way of being and environment. The point is that the Afterlife will not simply be an extension of this world with the sorts of causes and effects we\u2019re used to: it will be utterly different. We alluded to that in our remark above that \u201cthere was to be a fundamental difference between our worldly experience and our Afterlife one\u201d.<\/p>\n

(c) 2013 Rabbi Yaakov Feldman<\/p>\n

Feel free to contact me at feldman@torah.org<\/a><\/p>\n

———————————————————-<\/p>\n

AT LONG LAST! Rabbi Feldman’s translation of Maimonides’ “Eight Chapters” is available here<\/a> at a discount.<\/p>\n

You can still purchase a copy of Rabbi Feldman’s translation of “The Gates of Repentance” here<\/a> at a discount as well.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Yaakov Feldman has also translated and commented upon “The Path of the Just” and “The Duties of the Heart” (Jason Aronson Publishers).<\/p>\n

Rabbi Feldman also offers two free e-mail classes on www.torah.org entitled “Spiritual Excellence<\/a>\u201d and \u201cRamchal<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The class can be found here. There was to be a fundamental difference between our worldly experience and our Afterlife one [1] — between the environment in which we struggle toward growth and perfection known as Olam Hazeh (\u201cthis world\u201d), … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,3,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jewish-thought","category-kabbalah","category-ramchal","category-torah"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iqof-2O","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rabbiyaakovfeldman.aishdas.org\/derechhashem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}