CHAPTER EIGHT
REWARD AND PUNISHMENT IN THE WORLD TO COME
[8:1] The reward that is prepared for the righteous in the World to Come, is without death, and good without evil. The Torah alludes to this, saying, "You will have it good, and you will live long." (Deuteronomy 22:7). The Sages taught: "You will have it good," in the world that is entirely good, "and you will live long," in the world which is infinitely long, namely, the World to Come. The righteous are rewarded by their souls studying God's wisdom and unifying with the Holy light and intelligence of God, and sharing in this goodness. The wicked are punished and they do not merit this life1. Instead they are cut off and cease to exist. Whoever does not merit this life, after death he will be cut off from his source of Holy light due to his sins, and perish like a beast. This is what the term kareis in the Torah means, as it is written, "Cut off shall he be cut off that soul." (Exodus 15:31). The Tractate (Sanhedrin 90b) explains, he shall be "cut off" in this world, and "shall be cut off," in the World to Come. When the soul of a person who is punished by kareis (premature death) leaves this world, it does not merit life in the World to Come.
[8:2] There are no physical bodies2 in the World to Come. Only the souls of the righteous, without a body, exist, similar to the ministering angels. Since there are no physical bodies, there is neither eating, drinking, nor any other bodily function of this world like sitting, standing, sleeping, death, sadness, laughter, etc. The early Sages said, "in the World to Come there is no eating, drinking or sexual relations, but the righteous sit with their crowns on their heads, deriving pleasure from the radiance of the God's light of knowledge." (Berachos 17a.) Since there is no body, there is no eating or drinking. The statement "the righteous sit," is metaphoric, meaning, the righteous exist without labor or exertion. In the same vein, the phrase, "their crowns on their heads," is also a metaphor, implying that they retain
1 As was explained before, there are wicked people who will not see the World to Come, and others who will see it but will not merit it on their own, but only through the righteous in the World to Come.
2 Maimonides is criticized by others for claiming that the World to Come is for souls without bodies, because if so, how can there be a rising of the dead without a body. Commentaries answer that it is a semantic disagreement. According to Maimonides, a physical body that dresses a soul in the same manner that angels appear to those who have seen them with their eyes, such as Abraham and the three angels, cannot be referred to as a body. A body is understood to have physical needs such as a need to eat, drink, sleep, etc. This physical dress of the soul in the period of the Rising of the Dead, is completely subordinate to the soul and has none of the human desires as we know. Nachmonides (Ramban) calls this physical dress of the soul a body. He also notes in his work titled Shaar Hagemul, that the World to Come starts off with a body. It is to be deduced from these words that at a later stage the soul will lose this body, and that stage of the World to Come will continue without this body. He is referring to the stages in the creation of the Universe. At the beginning it is totally condensed as far as it can. Then it reverses itself and begins expansion and the start of the creation of the four stages of creation. With the creation of the fourth stage, is becomes possible to create bodies. The Rising of the Dead and the start of the World to Come will be while the fourth stage will still exist, and therefore, the soul will be given this physical dressing. The process of creation is expansion and contraction. Therefore, as the universe contracts, the fourth stage is the first to disintegrate, and with it the bodies of these souls.