The
Hovot HaLevavot now discusses Bitachon as it relates to Olam Habah, in that we
must rely on Hashem that the ultimate reward is the world to come. But first, he
goes on a slight tangent, to explain why there isn’t a clear mention of Olam
Habah in the Torah. The Torah doesn’t
say, “If you xyz you’ll go to Olam Habah.” It’s hinted at, but it is never the main
focus. Regarding reward and punishment, the Torah discusses more physical
rewards. It tells us that if we keep the
mitzvot, it’ll rain, or we’ll have success with our fields. The rewards
discussed are always physical. Why is
that?
The
first reason the Hovot HaLevavot gives is that it’s very hard for a physical
body to truly comprehend what Olam Habah is. Because it’s purely spiritual, we
can’t understand it in our physical bodies.
So why try to motivate us with a concept that we can’t really appreciate
or understand? Rambam discusses this at length, and says that explaining the
spiritual concept of Olam Habah is like trying to explain color to a blind man,
or explain what a symphony is to a deaf man. If someone lacks the organ or
utensil necessary to appreciate that sense, you can’t possibly explain it to
them.
Therefore,
Hashem says, in a sense, why focus on something that people can’t or won’t
appreciate anyway?
Instead,
G-d speaks about worldly pleasures, and we are supposed apply the reward/punishment,
pain/pleasure of this world, to imagine how much more is to come in the next
world. If this is the reward we get now, imagine what the real pleasure will be!
Rambam
says that spiritual pains and pleasures are much greater than physical ones, and
we should not discount the spiritual rewards of Olam Haba as meta-physical or
intangible.
He
gives a few examples to prove his point:
Firstly,
בעמל ויגיעה שאין
למעלה מהם
most
people will very work to almost unlimited capacities,
כדי שיגיע לו מעלה
וכבוד
In
order to gain honor,
and
yet,
והנאה זו אינה הנאת
מאכל ומשתה
this pleasure of the honor they seek is not
physical like eating and drinking.
Another
example is revenge. Many people put all of their focus on getting revenge, even
more than than getting actual things.
And yet revenge isn’t a physical pleasure. It’s emotional.
Finally,
people refrain from doing things they really want to do, for fear of
embarrassment. They want to have a good
name.
All
these concepts, honor, revenge, embarrassment- these are all spiritual, emotional
feelings. He says that if someone is willing to give up a million dollars of
their hard-earned money in order to get the honor of having their name a building,
we can use that physical-world feeling of honor to imagine how we’ll feel about
honor in the spiritual world of Olam Habah.
Both
the Rambam and the Hovot Halevavot explain that Hashem did not want to stress
something that we can’t appreciate.
That’s why reward and punishment visa vie Olam Habah, aren’t mentioned in
the Torah.
The
Tur (Siman 529) tells us that a person, when experiencing a physical pleasure
such as eating on Shabbat or Yom Tov, should say to himself, “If this is the
pleasure achieved just from drinking a good wine or eating a delicious steak,
imagine what the pleasure of Olam Habah will be like, without the side effects
of indigestion or fighting or headaches! Whenever we experience enjoyment, we
are supposed to jump up and say, “Wow! If that tasted so good, imagine what
Olam Habah will taste like.”
That’s
the first reason the Hovot HaLevavot gives for why Hashem did not talk about
Olam Haba in the Torah.
Have
a wonderful day.
