Yitzhak, in Kant’s book Critique of Practical Reason there is a detailed discussion of this topic. He argues that this is a “requirement of reason”; look there.

It is written in the Talmud about Amoraim who met Elijah the Prophet,
and also dozens of cases of encounters with souls, so it is explicit that the soul exists after death.

It also explicitly says that Abraham met the angels, and nevertheless Maimonides says that this was in a dream. Aggadic passages are interpreted in all sorts of ways, and Maimonides already discussed in his introduction to the Mishnah the three groups regarding their interpretation.

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

I vaguely remember that Rabbi Dessler (Michtav MeEliyahu, volume 5) holds that “the World to Come” means the experience of a different world, seeing the world in different ways. That is: seeing the world as it really is, and not as a person experiences it now in a limited way. It reminds me a bit of Plato’s cave.

So does the doctor-rabbi think there’s a possibility that the soul’s existence after death in the World to Come is a noble lie?

I don’t know what he thinks. In my own opinion, it can be either tradition or reasoning. But not necessarily a noble lie (a lie is a matter of intent).

With God’s help, 28 Kislev 5780

The persistence of the soul is explained in several places in the Holy Scriptures. Abigail blesses David: “And the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord your God,” and Ecclesiastes concludes: “And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”

The resurrection of the dead, too, is mentioned in several places in Scripture. In Psalms 104: “… You take away their breath, they perish and return to their dust. You send forth Your spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth.” And in Isaiah 26: “Your dead shall live, my corpses shall arise; awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust…” Malachi prophesies that at the end of days God will send Elijah the Prophet to turn the heart of fathers to children and the heart of children to their fathers. And in Daniel 12: “And many of those who sleep in the dusty earth shall awake, some to everlasting life …”

And reason also supports it: if in matter there is a “law of conservation of matter” and a “law of conservation of energy,” then all the more so, regarding the living soul that God breathed into man, it is fitting that there be a “law of conservation of spirit.”

After all, as described in the portion of Genesis, death is a “historical accident” due to the sin of Adam who ate from the Tree of Knowledge, because of which it was decreed upon him, “and to dust you shall return,” and access to the Tree of Life was denied him. Therefore, when the sin is corrected, man will return to the natural state for which he was intended, and then the prophet’s vision will be fulfilled: “He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe tears from every face.”

The delight of the World to Come is that then, when the restraints of matter are removed, a person will merit to know God and cleave to Him with all his heart. This delight does not begin only after death. Already in his lifetime, a person who truly cleaves to goodness and uprightness can feel closeness to God, as the expounders of wordplay said, that “the World to Come” is a world that is “coming and arriving.”

With bright Hanukkah blessings,
S.Tz.

Hello Rabbi, assuming there is a World to Come, then why in your opinion is it not explicit in the Torah?

I don’t know. Many answers have been given to this. But perhaps the Torah is not supposed to tell us every truth about the world. Its main concern is teaching good character traits and commandments and history.

The difficulty is that the Torah tries to persuade you to keep commandments by means of threats of reward and punishment in this world, and seemingly it would be much more effective — or at least would add a lot — to add the matter of the World to Come. I once heard an answer to the question that God is not interested in our living with a consciousness of the World to Come because it diverts a person from his task. What do you think of that?

That’s what the Torah is trying to do? Who revealed this secret to you?
The “answer” you brought doesn’t answer in any way. After all, if the Torah wants to persuade me, as you assume, then it does want this to be in consciousness. You are forced to say that the one giving that “answer” assumes it does not want that. But if it does not want that, then the difficulty never arises, and no answers are needed.

I didn’t understand. What I meant was that specifically thoughts about reward and punishment in the World to Come are disruptive, but thoughts about reward and punishment in this world are not disruptive.

Why?

With God’s help, eve of the holy Sabbath, Bo, 5780

To Nahum — greetings,

The awareness that the soul continues to exist after death was simple and accepted throughout humanity in the biblical period. About a person who died they said that he “was gathered to his fathers,” and the meaning is not that he was buried with them. The proof is that God says to Abraham, “And you shall come to your fathers in peace,” yet he was not buried near Terah. Rather, certainly the meaning of the expression “you shall come to your fathers” is that the souls will meet in the world of souls.

The Torah does not speak much about reward in the World to Come because the Torah offers more than that. The Torah offers those who keep it cleaving to God even in this world, as Moses said: “And what great nation is there that has God so near to it as the Lord our God whenever we call upon Him?” God reveals Himself to those who love Him through prophecy and guides them, hears their prayer, and bestows blessing upon them already in this world.

As described in Genesis, the Garden of Eden was supposed to be man’s natural place in this world, and he was able to eat from the fruit of the Tree of Life and live eternal life in this world. And even after man sinned and death was decreed upon him, he can still merit even in this world the state of “And I will walk among you.”

The Torah guides a person to aspire to cleaving to his Creator already in this world. In contrast to Egypt and the other nations, which invested in attempts to remain connected to the dead, the Torah strictly forbade trying to communicate with the dead. Mere contact with a dead body, or being in the same house with it, is the highest degree of ritual impurity, and it distances a person from the ability to connect to holiness. For the purpose is to cleave to God in life.

With blessings,
S.Tz.