Musar for Eruvin 43:4

The means that lead a person to this goal are the commandments which the blessed G-d commanded to us. The place of the performance of these commandments is only in this world. Therefore, man was first placed in this world so that through these means prepared for him here, he will be able to reach the place prepared for him, namely, the World to Come, there to be sated with the good which he acquired through these means. This is what our sages of blessed memory said "today to do them, and tomorrow to receive their reward" (Eruvin 22:1).

We have discussed the kabbalistic concept of שיעור קומה in our commentary on פרשת תרומה; the deeper significance of these allusions is bound up with what the משכן represents, the word קומה being a re-arrangement of the word הוקם in Exodus 40,17: הוקם המשכן. We discussed there the 236 thousand פרסאות, and that the measurements mentioned in the ספר היכלות referred only to a region in which Mattatron was at home. Any higher regions cannot be measured even symbolically, as they are spiritually too far removed from our physical universe. The Ari zal finds an allusion to this number 236 in Exodus 40,34: וכבוד ה' מלא את המשכן. When you spell the word משכן using words instead of letters, i.e. מ"ם, שי"ן, כ"ף, נו"ן, the differential between the regular spelling and the expanded spelling is 236, i.e. 410 and 646 respectively. The משכן povides the link between the Sabbath which is essentially part of the עולם הבא, and the ששת ימי המעשה, the six days of the week during which work is to be performed, i.e. during which all the commandments of the Torah are to be performed. Our sages (Eyruvin 22) have already expounded on the verse “היום לעשותם "ולמחר לקבל שכרם that the reward for the performance of the commandments will be received on the morrow, i.e. in the World to Come. The Sabbath is the reward for the work performed during the six days of work. In view of this it is appropriate that also the Courts in our world should refrain from making any decisions on the Sabbath, even when such decisions involve the performance of Divine Commandments.

And it is necessary to be cruel in judgment in order not to favor relatives, friends and the poor, but to decide according to the law. And our Rabbis said further: "In whom do you find the words of the Torah? In him who makes himself as cruel as the raven to his children, as Rabbi Adda bar Matna who was going to the House of Study and his wife said to him, 'What shall I do for your children' (to feed them if you go to study Torah instead of to work)? He responded, 'There are vegetables in the swamp' " (Erubin 22a).

Yes, my brother, is this world not "market day," when one must buy the wares to feed his soul all the days of his long life in the world that is entirely long? And if now, on "market day," he luxuriates in laziness and shirks his labor, will his soul not starve in the world of eternal life? This is the intent of "If not now, when?" And thus, in Koheleth (9:10): "And all that your hand finds to do, do with your power." That is, do not work lazily, but to the limits of your power. For only now is the time of doing, for (Ibid.): "there is no doing or reckoning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, whither you are going." For the days of labor will already have ended, and only from what is prepared for him by his toils in the days of his life in this world will his soul live there. As written in the Torah (Devarim 7:11): "…today to do them [the mitzvoth]," and not tomorrow to do them, but only to receive their reward. (Eruvin 22a)

The letter ק in the word יצחק is an allusion to the gift of עולם הבא. That gift is perceived as the reward for performing G–d's commandments in this world. Torah observance became a practical consideration only at the time Abraham and Sarah began converting (12,5). Only then did the 2000 year period described by our sages as Tohu, come to an end. Whereas this process of revealing the "Torah" began with Abraham, it was concluded only at the time the Jewish people, the descendants of Jacob who had not sired any פסולת, stood at the bottom of Mount Sinai. Of the Torah's commandments it is said in Eiruvin 22: היום לעשותם ומחר לקבל שכרם, "the commandments are to be performed today, (in this world) and their reward will be received tomorrow" (in the World to Come). The letter, (number) ק alludes to the age of Abraham at the time Isaac was born when he began to contemplate all aspects of the Torah. When that letter is spelled as a word, i.e. קוף, its numerical value equals 186 or מקום. The word מקום is another name of G–d seeing that it is made up of the letters in the Ineffable Name being squared, thus: 10 ,י-ה-ו-ה times 10, +5 times 5, +6 times 6, +five times 5=186. The "upper" earth [in the Celestial Regions] is holy "soil," i.e. the מקום is holy, and when Isaiah 60,21 says: ועמך כלם צדיקים לעולם ירשו ארץ, "your people who are all holy, they will inherit an eternal earth," the reference is to the עולם הבא. That is the region where G–d directs blessings which continue indefinitely. This is the mystical dimension in which the one hundred blessings are rooted, the hundred gates in the spiritual world which we discussed on pages 159-160. When you look at the numerical value of the name יעקב, which equals 182, and add 4 for his four wives with whom he sired all the children who were loyal to Torah precepts, you have the number 186, the same as the letter קוף, or the name for G–d when His celestial dimension מקום is described. The Torah describes יעקב as part of G–d in Deut. 32,9:. כי חלק ה' עמו, יעקב חבל נחלתו.

We need to appreciate that the name יעקב is in fact ישראל. The name יעקב alludes to an exalted position on earth, i.e. in this world; it reflects observance of Torah in this world, not expecting to be rewarded in this world, but being content היום, לעשותו, מחל לקבל שכרם, as we have explained earlier. The name ישראל is the direct outcome of יעקב having been what he was here on earth. Our sages have taught us that שכר מצוה מצוה, that the reward of performing a commandment is the מצוה itself (Avot 4,2). This means that the spiritual element of the מצוה one performs on earth becomes the glue with which one attaches oneself to G–d in the Hereafter. When David refers to the great reward in store as a result of observing the commandments, i.e. בשמרם עקב רב (Psalms 19,12), he points to the seemingly insignificant commandments people are in the habit of ignoring. The word Eikev means סוף, end. The word סוף also means תכלית, the ultimate purpose of life as defined by Solomon in Kohelet 12,13 in the words: סוף דבר את האלוקים ירא ואת מצותיו שמור כי זה כל האדם. "To sum up: Fear the Lord, observe His commandments, for this is what man is all about." This סוף which Solomon speaks about in Kohelet is the latter part of Jacob's name עקב, heel, itself the tail-end of a person. This יעקב was alluded to earlier in the Torah when G–d said to Isaacs, “I shall multiply your seed like the stars of the heaven" (26,4). G–d goes on to say that inheritance of the land of Israel will be due to Abraham having listened to G–d's voice and having observed His commandments, עקב אשר שמע אברהם בקולי. The word עקב refers to that part of יעקב's name.

We find that a desirable death for man is the exact opposite of what is deemed a desirable death for the animal. Whereas man prefers death at the hands of G–d, i.e. not through murder at the hands of human beings, the animal achieves its state of "holiness" only when executed by man, not when it dies from natural causes. The reason is that man's body is the sheath for his soul. Through partnership of body and soul man observes the laws of Torah and Avodah in the sense of היום לעשותה ולמחר לקבל שכרם, to perform the commandments "today" while alive on earth, and to receive the reward for such performance "tomorrow," i.e. after death of the body, in the Hereafter. This is why the day of death is described by Solomon as superior to the day a person is born, since it is the day the spirit returns to G–d and the body finds rest in the grave (Kohelet 7,6). If body and soul are separated prematurely (through murder or other violence leading to death), whoever is responsible has separated Torah and Avodah from the direction and the time frame intended by G–d for that person.