All The Life In The World To Come
Among the many brilliant statements in the work known as The Ethics of the Fathers, a beautiful and profound statement brings us very close to understanding the 'meaning of life'.
A beautiful and profound statement in "The Ethics of the Fathers" brings us very close to understanding the 'meaning of life'. It is taught;
"More precious is one hour in repentance and
good deeds in this world, than
all the life of the world to come"
- Pirke Avot 4:17
As is often the case, they use as few words as possible, which we'll want to break down to discover their wisdom. We'll want to understand how anything in this world could be of more value than the World to Come - and the connection between this, good deeds, and repentance.
Good Deeds
Good deeds are a logical part of this equation. In Rabbinic vernacular, 'good deeds' (Ma'aseh Tovim) often reference the 613 commandments. These 613 can be divided into 248 do's, and 365 do not's. Thus, we should include in this the avoidance of all that is harmful to us, as detailed in these prohibitions.
One Hour of Repentance
Why would they suggest Repentance as valuable? Would it not have been better to say good deeds and good behavior? Repentance (Tshuva in Hebrew) means "to return" - as in, go back to where you were before you made a mistake. Repentance implies that there must have been a misstep or a wrong turn somewhere.
The World to Come
For those unfamiliar with the concept of "World to Come", this is the indescribable and eternal reality that awaits all creation somewhere on the other side of the Messianic era. This is what the prophets say, 'no eye has seen...' We are in the Present World, known as the Olam HaZeh.
Don't lose sight of this question - how can an hour of repentance and good deeds in this fallen and broken world be more precious than the renewed eternal bliss of the World to Come?
Let's briefly go back to the beginning.
Our Mission
Tradition teaches that Adam's soul was unique at the time of his creation, a never-before-seen fusion of spirit and physicality. It would be from his composite soul that every human soul would originate. Paul alludes to the deep Midrashic tradition about this reality many times¹.
This asserts that all humans are connected on a soul and physical level. Every person, therefore, contains a spark of Adam's soul.
At the moment of his sin, Adam damaged all³ subsequent souls, internalizing a breakdown and integration of death across all creation⁴.
On this side of Eden, it has been the job of every human to rectify the unique spark of Adam's soul within us. Like a cosmological, multi-generational puzzle, each of us possesses a unique piece to lay down in our time.
In practical terms, we should strive to live a godly life to the best of our ability, returning our souls better than we found them. This also includes being especially careful not to damage them and, as the Kabbalists say, do our best to remove our souls from the Klippah⁵.
Returning the Soul
In light of this, how can we return our soul better than we found it? Wouldn't it have been better not to enter into this reality in the first place?
This begins to scratch the surface of the earlier statement. This is precisely why we are here in this Present world.
In the place of eternal timelessness, the soul was with the Creator, existing in infinitude. But, there, the soul lacked perspective - the frame of reference to understand the idea of eternity. We read:
The soul is a tiny spark of G_D within each and every one of us. In the non-tangible upper worlds of pure spirituality, the soul is able to bask in the sublime delight of Divine illumination, an unfathomable pleasure that makes any physical pleasure seem like darkness and disgust. Before its descent into the lowly material world - simply knows of the existence of this wonderful, indescribably pleasurable spiritual illumination but nothing of the illumination's source or nature.
- The Garden of Emunah. Page 192
It is taught; 'in this created world, a thing can only be understood by its opposite'. To understand life, one must experience death; to grasp eternity, one must experience finitude.
On earth, the soul experiences the darkness of separation, the loss of loved ones, the sensations of hot and cold, seasons, hunger, and a full range of human emotions.
However, it is here, and only here, that we can make mistakes - and also make good on them.
When we err, we repent. Through this cycle, we gain new insight, wisdom, and a renewed sense of purpose. Experience by experience, we gain the clarity that life is a gift, and in these moments of renewal, we emerge a new creation, blameless, elevating ourselves higher than where we began.
This is why one hour of repentance is more valuable than the World to Come. This is why we are here.
It can be an unfortunate belief that we are here to kill time until we go to heaven. There, these experiences are not possible, nor are they of any use to us when we return to the upper worlds⁶.
Only in this world of duality and darkness, truth and lies, are we given the experiences of life, the gift of mistakes, the mercy of starting again, and the rewards for the times we got it right.
Notes:
¹ https://www.thehiddenorchard.com/who-is-the-new-man-in-ephesians/
² "When two or more particles link up in a certain way, no matter how far apart they are in space, their states remain linked. That means they share a common, unified quantum state." - https://www.livescience.com/what-is-quantum-entanglement.html
³ Technically speaking, some souls managed to avoid this damage, but this is out of scope for this piece.
⁴ Not to be confused with Original Sin. https://www.thehiddenorchard.com/original-sin/
⁵ https://www.thehiddenorchard.com/understanding-the-klippah/
⁶ "than all the time in the world to come": Because at that time, repentance and good deeds do not benefit a person, as the world to come is only for the receiving of a reward for that which he observed in this world. - Bartenura on Pirke Avot 4:17
