Olam ha-Ba

Right, so that was the whole point.

How did we get into this whole, how did we get into the whole Hashkapi conversation through a Mussar point, right? Someone's going to say, oh, it's okay, I don't have to worry about so much about things, I'll just get into a little bit of Olam Haba, not so much, and the Kaddish will be good to me, and the Kaddish will love me anyway, and no matter what, etc.

No, no, no.

After we learned that Midas Adin is such a strong, dominating force, although it's balanced with Midas Arachem, but it's always there, and it is always going to Marech Apeh, So therefore the conclusion has to be, I have to be super careful.

So the issue of wh- what's the reward for being righteous becomes very, very important.

And so it was necessary for them to figure out some way to say to people, "You will be rewarded, uh, for doing righteous deeds, uh, for studying Torah." And so the notion of Olam Haba, uh, which is something which arose perhaps, uh, in the middle of the second century before the Common Era, it certainly is not in the Bible anywhere except a passing reference in the Book of Daniel.

The notion of Olam Haba, the world to come, becomes very important, and the notion of rewards for righteous become very important.

We can see this in the transition be- between Hillel's statement.

So Hillel was b- 70 years before the destruction of the temple, at least.

Uh, so Hillel's statement is that if you've earned a good name, that's very nice.

You've earned something very good for yourself.

But if you study Torah, you get a place in Olam Haba, the world to come.

If you do teshuva, then you are about teshuva.

And you have a portion of olam haba.

But one of them, or sorry, one category is teshuva.

I know this is different.

Okay, and then he says, whether it's interpersonal or whether it's between him and God, you need to rebuke him privately.

You need to speak to him gently and with a soft tongue.

And you need to tell him, you're only saying this to him for his good and to bring him into Olam Haba.

If he accepts it, good.

If I'm not gonna... not for myself, then who is for myself? But by doing that, we also u-unearth and tap into our most powerful essence.

Uh, but in addition, the, the end of the story, what does it say? It says that he gets a golden ticket to Olam Habah comes along Rabbi Yehuda the Prince and says, "This is, this is not fair.

Some people need to work so hard to get to Olam Habah while others, they get it in one hour." So my grandfather used to say a very interesting idea to, to, um, bring home this, this story.

He says, "Well, everyone has an hour that's going to change who they are.

That's like the pivotal paradigm shift of their lives.

But other people, they get their hour all at once.

But everyone's looking for that hour.

Everyone's looking for that, that internal change where they're able to find out, discover who they are really and, and unearth that and become someone that's worthy of Olam Habah.

However, that's only in this world.

When it comes to the next world, in the clarity of Olam Abba, we say there is nothing besides you, our God, in Olam Abba.

In Olam Abba, in the next world, not only is God the top value of the internal hierarchy, he is the only value.

There is nothing besides you, our king, in Olam Abba.

Our sages tell us, Abraham, and of course Isaac and Jacob as well, These were the people who managed to taste Olam Abba, to live with the same kinds of priorities as exist in the next world, even though they were still here.

What Abraham did was he transformed what was important in his life.

Not only did he say God's important, God's a priority, God's a value in my life.

And therefore, if God tells me to go commit filicide, well, then it's the same as God tells me to do on another mitzvah, because after all, there's only one motivating factor.

I can't control it.

But why should I want to lead other people astray? Why should I want to be Makhshil, someone else? And that is why the Gemara in Chagig ultimately says, someone like Acher has a Chelek in Olam Haba.

Because he made a point of not trying to mislead other people.

Unlike, you know, so many atheists, who, you know, they're into Kiruv.

Now, that doesn't mean, the opposite doesn't mean they're going to be in hell forever.

It just means they die and they're obliterated.

It's not like God's going to torture them, but they don't partake of the reward of Olam Haba.

On the other hand, I look at the Tveresh Yisrael, which is a commentary on the Mishnah, and he says an interesting thing.