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Q&A: A Perfect World Without Toil?

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A Perfect World Without Toil?

Question

Hello Rabbi,
I heard about technological developments that could create an internet experience involving all five senses, and at some point it will probably reach a state of actual reality versus a “perfect” virtual reality (and even if not, the question still stands hypothetically).
Should these developments be prevented? Technological developments that would cause a person not to labor, but rather to live in a world full of good with no disadvantages at all! Whatever he wants, he gets here and now! Are these developments really good or bad? I’d be happy to know your opinion on the subject… thank you.
(Of course I don’t think I can actually prevent them; it’s more about the line of thought behind them.) 

Answer

I don’t understand why they should be prevented. Is there some value in suffering? Even if you take the punishment imposed on the first man—“by the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread”—is it really our job to make sure punishments imposed by the Holy One, blessed be He, are carried out? See Nachmanides on the point that Joseph did not tell his father that he was alive in order to ensure that the dreams would be fulfilled. And many have already challenged him on this, along lines similar to what I’m saying here.
From a moral-human perspective, not a Torah one, maybe there is some value in labor. But it seems absurd to me to stop progress in order to leave us with work. Since it’s impossible to prevent this, the hypothetical question is at least of no practical value. What is incumbent on us now is to think about how to conduct ourselves in the new reality, not how to stop the renewal itself (as in the Haredi approach).

Discussion on Answer

K (2019-06-28)

If in digital reality there will be no possibility of encountering prohibitions and commandments, would the Rabbi also hold that this is fine, or is your point only about the dimension of the curse of “by the sweat of your brow”?
In the fifth notebook, on work for a higher purpose, you wrote that there is a reason for the dimension of choice in the commandments. And Ramchal also mentions many times the importance of choice. Because without commandments and morality there is no act of choice and deliberation.

Michi (2019-06-28)

Excellent. There is no obligation whatsoever to care for the interests of the Holy One, blessed be He, more than He Himself does. He imposed prohibitions on us if and when we encounter them. In a world where there is no such encounter, there are no prohibitions. Are we obligated to raise pigs so that we can choose not to eat them? Or to go to a mixed beach so as not to look? The question of why we were given choice concerns the Holy One, blessed be He (why He did not create a perfect world without creatures that can ruin it). But that does not mean we need to make sure that at every moment we have an option to sin. That is an absurd conclusion.
By the way, in Maimonides, Laws of Repentance 2:1, it says:
Which is complete repentance? It is when a person is confronted with the very thing in which he sinned, and it is possible for him to do it, yet he separates himself and does not do it because of repentance—not out of fear, and not because his strength has failed. How so? If he had relations with a woman in transgression, and after some time he is alone with her, still loving her, physically capable, and in the very place where he sinned, yet he refrains and does not transgress—this is complete repentance. This is what Solomon said: “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.” And if he repented only in his old age, at a time when he can no longer do what he used to do, then although this is not the highest form of repentance, it is still effective for him, and he is a penitent. Even if he sinned all his days and repented on the day of his death and died in repentance, all his sins are forgiven, as it is said: “Before the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain”—that is the day of death. This implies that if he remembered his Creator and repented before he died, he is forgiven.
Some have inferred from this (I think the Sefat Emet) that a penitent is permitted to place himself in a situation that arouses the evil inclination in order to overcome it and thereby be a true penitent. I’m not sure that is a correct inference from Maimonides, but in any case that is only a permission for penitents.

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