Q&A: A Tremendous Difficulty
A Tremendous Difficulty
Question
Maimonides writes in the Laws of Repentance and in the chapter “Helek” that the punishment of the wicked is that they will be cut off and perish like an animal. The question is: what is the punishment in that, since during their lives they presumably do not believe in the World to Come (at least some of them do not), so it makes no sense to punish them through the knowledge that they will be punished. And after death, they simply will not exist.
Answer
Does every wicked person not believe in the World to Come? Is every offender wicked? There are already even greater difficulties here. I once wrote here that there is no logic in punishing in the World to Come, because the threat alone is enough to achieve the results. The actual punishment adds nothing.
Discussion on Answer
I don’t remember. You’d have to search the site. But there isn’t much there beyond what I wrote here.
Can you point me to where you wrote that?