Next world

Yitzhak, there is a detailed reference to this issue in Kant's book "Critique of Practical Reason." He claims that it is a "demand of reason," look there.

It is written in the Gemara about Amoraim who met the prophet Elijah
and also dozens of cases of meeting with souls. Therefore, it is clear that the soul exists after death.

It is also explicitly written that Abraham met the angels, yet Maimonides says it was in a dream. Legends are interpreted in all sorts of ways, and Maimonides, in his introduction to the Mishnah, already discussed three schools of thought regarding their interpretation.

Nahum, it is also written that the Demiurge was revealed to Socrates, so what?

I vaguely remember that Rabbi Dessler (Letter from Elihu, Volume 5) believes that the next world refers to a different world experience, seeing the world in different ways. That is: seeing the world as it truly is and not as man experiences it today in a limited way. It reminds me a bit of Plato's cave.

So the Doctorov believes that there is a possibility that the existence of the soul after death in the next world is a lie?

I don't know what he believes. In my opinion, it could be a tradition, or a belief. But not necessarily a holy lie (a lie is a deliberate thing).

In the 28th of Kislev, 5722, the resurrection of the dead is mentioned in several places in the Bible. Abigail blesses David: “And the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God,” and the congregation shall gather, “and the dust shall return to the earth, and the spirit shall return to the God who gave it.”

The resurrection of the dead is also mentioned in several places in the Bible. In Psalms 11: “You shall gather their spirit, they shall return to their dust; send forth your spirit, they shall be healed, and you shall renew the face of the earth.” And in Isaiah 22: “Your dead shall live, they shall be laid waste; wake up and sing, you who dwell in the dust.” Malachi prophesies that in the last days God will send Elijah the prophet to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. And in Daniel 12: “Many who sleep in the dust of the ground will awaken, these to eternal life.”

And the reasoning is: If in matter there is a “law of conservation of matter” and a “law of conservation of energy,” how much more so in the soul of life that God breathed into man, it is fitting that there should be a “law of conservation of spirit.”

For as described in the Book of Genesis, death is a “historical accident” due to the sin of man who ate from the tree of knowledge, for which reason it was decreed that he “should return to dust” and he was denied access to the tree of life. Therefore, when sin is corrected, man will return to the natural state to which he was destined, and then the prophet's vision will be fulfilled: "He will swallow up death forever, and God will wipe away tears from all faces."

The joy of the world to come is that when the obstacles of matter are removed, man will be worthy to know God and cling to Him with all his heart. This joy does not begin after death. Already in his life, a person who clings to the truth of goodness and righteousness can feel the closeness of God, and as the seekers of records said, "the world to come" is a world that "continues to come and go."

With a bright Hanukkah blessing, Sh'ach

Hello Rabbi, assuming there is a world to come, then why do you think it is not explicitly stated in the Torah?

I don't know. There have been many excuses for this. But maybe the Torah isn't supposed to tell us every truth about the world. Its main concern is teaching virtues and commandments and history.

The difficulty is that the Torah tries to convince you to keep the commandments by threatening rewards and punishments in this world and apparently much more effectively. Or at least it adds a lot, to add the matter of the next world. I once heard an answer to the question that God does not want us to live in the consciousness of the next world because it incites man from his duty. What do you think about that?

Is this what the Torah is trying to do? Who revealed this secret to you?
The ”answer” you brought does not answer in any way. After all, if the Torah wants to convince me, as you assume, then it does want it to be in the mind. Of course, you, the author of the ”answer”, assume that it does not want to. But if it does not want to, then the question does not arise and there is no need for excuses.

I didn't understand. What I meant was that thoughts about reward and punishment in the next world are disturbing, but thoughts about reward and punishment in this world are not disturbing.

why?

To Nahum, peace be upon him,

The awareness that the soul continues to exist after death was simple and accepted by all humanity during the time of the Bible. Of a person who died, they said that he was “gathered to his fathers,” and this does not mean that he was buried with them, and evidence is that Abraham was told, “And you shall go to your fathers in peace,” and he was not buried near Terah. Rather, the meaning of the phrase “you shall go to your fathers” is certainly that the souls will meet in the world of souls.

The Torah does not say much about the reward in the next world, because the Torah offers more than that. The Torah offers its followers adherence to it. Even in this world, as Moses said: ‘What great nation has a God so close to it’ our God in all that we call upon Him’. The Lord reveals Himself to His lovers in prophecy and guides them, hears their prayers and bestows blessings upon them already in this world.

As described in the Book of Genesis, the Garden of Eden should have been man's natural place in this world and he would have been able to eat from the tree of life and live eternal life in this world, and even after man sinned and was condemned to death – he could also gain in this world the state of ‘and I will walk among you’.

The Torah guides man to strive for devotion to his Creator already in this world. In contrast to the Egyptians and other nations who invested in attempts to be connected to the dead – the Torah strictly forbade attempting to communicate with the dead. The very act of touching a dead person or being with him in the house is the ‘father of impurity’ and it distances a person from the ability to connect with holiness. After all, the purpose is to cling to it’ in life.

With blessings, Sh”t