Chapter II

Among the seven items which the Talmud1 lists as having being created prior to the creation of the world are Torah, repentance and Gan Eden.

This must be understood. Gan Eden serves as a reward [for the soul] for its performance of Torah and mitzvos in this world. A deed is rewarded only after it has been done. It is similar to a laborer hired to perform a specific task. His reward comes due only after the task has been completed.

Also, the reward for one's effort has to be greater than the effort itself [for otherwise the reward would not be worth the effort]. This being so, how is it possible for a task to be greater than its reward? And yet the Mishnah states that repentance and good deeds are better than life in Gan Eden. How then is Gan Eden a proper reward for the service of Torah and mitzvos ? We must also understand how repentance was possible prior to the world's creation, [since repentance presupposes a negative act on the part of a created being].

Indeed, the statement: "One hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is better than all the life of the World to Come," requires clarification. This statement follows the previous statement [of the Mishnah]:2 "This world is like an antechamber before the World to Come; prepare yourself in the antechamber so that you may enter the banquet hall." Our physical world then is but a preparation for the spiritual World to Come, and our actions here must be such that we enter the next world in a state of purity.

Since this world is but an antechamber to the next, how can a preparatory hour of repentance and good deeds here be superior to the World to Come? [The matter becomes even more puzzling when one realizes that] life in the World to Come is completely spiritual. Moreover, the physical and the spiritual are complete opposites, the spiritual being drawn upwards and the physical downwards.

How then is it possible that a totally physical life lived in a material world serves as a preparation for the wholly spiritual life of the World to Come?

[The matter is as follows:] When our sages of blessed memory said that repentance and Gan Eden were created prior to the creation of the world, they did not mean that it preceded it in time. Rather, they meant that repentance and Gan Eden are spiritually superior to this world.3

This world is termed "olam,"4 which means "concealment," since matters here are not perceived in their true light. Everything created by G-d is comprised of body and soul; the created being as well as its soul or spirit. Most essential, of course, is the soul which gives life to the body. Yet only the body is readily perceived, while the soul is concealed.

We find in our [sacred] literature that man is called a "miniature world,"5 a microcosm, and that the world is referred to as "a huge body," for all that is found in it is also found in man. The Midrash states:6 "Just as the soul enlivens the body, so does G-d enliven the world." Concerning this [simile] we find written:7 "From my flesh I perceive G-dliness."

Man knows full well that there is a soul within him that is the source of all his powers and abilities. A body bereft of its soul can do nothing, though it may possess all its physical organs. Only when the soul is clothed in the body is a person alive, and only then do the bodily organs each fulfill their functions the mind comprehends, the eye sees, the ear hears. This is why a person is called a "small world" and the world "a huge body." Life in the "small world" teaches man to understand the life of the "huge body," the world.

In summary: Repentance and Gan Eden were created at a higher level than this world. This world is characterized by concealment, with its life-source hidden, just as created beings' bodies conceal their souls. Man is a microcosm, and the world is a "huge body."