Hello,



Like all cultures and nations — which change their views and outlooks from time to time — so is orthodox Judaism. In the past the view was that life on this earth was the purpose of man, and then the Sages of the Mishnah and Talmud came and turned things on their head; man’s life became subordinate to the life of his soul after death. This life became a mere corridor to the main room.



Life after death is not mentioned at all in the Torah. Quite the opposite: the reward for each commandment is given in this world. “Honor your father and your mother so your days may be long upon this earth” (Exodus 20:11). “Obey His decrees and His commands…so your days may be long upon this earth” (Deuteronomy 4:40). Therefore the Second Temple era aristocracy (the Sadducees) did not believe in the resurrection of the dead, as Josephus (a Jewish historian, commander in the Galilee during the era of the Second Temple’s destruction) testifies: “According to the Sadducees’ view the soul disappears with the body, and their only goal in the world is obeying the laws” (Antiquities of the Jews 18). Support for Josephus’s words can be found in Avot d’Rabbi Natan (chapter 5): “The Sadducees say [of the Mishnaic Sages]: ‘It is a tradition among the Pharisees to punish themselves in this world and in the World to Come they have naught.” During the era of the Mishnah (the first centuries CE) the concept of a World to Come gained strength and importance to the extent that life in this world was defined as a means of achieving life in the World to Come. :Rabbi Jacob said that this world is like a corridor before the World to Come. Prepare yourself in the corridor that you may enter the main room” (Avot 4:47). Chazal accepted the faith in the World to Come as the goal of obeying the commandments, even though they had no Scriptural source for this faith. After this faith became commonplace and was integrated by the believing public (who were despondent after the destruction of the Second Temple and in a sorry state), Chazal began explicating verses without considering whether they worked with the original Scriptural meaning. For example, the blessing Moses gave the tribe of Benjamin, “Beloved of the Lord, He rests securely beside Him; ever does He protect him as he rests between His shoulders” (Deuteronomy 33:12) was explained thus: “He protects him — in this world, ever — in the Messianic times, rests between His shoulders — this is the World to Come” (Zevachim 118b).

We also find the Sage’s habit of forcing the text to match their beliefs and whims — their desire to rule over people by frightening them about the unknown future — in the faith in the World to Come.

They write:

It has been taught: R. Eliezer, son of R. Jose, said: In this matter I refuted the books of the sectarians, [Samaritans] who maintained that resurrection is not deducible from the Torah. I said to them: You have falsified your Torah, yet it has availed you nothing. For you maintain that resurrection is not a Biblical doctrine, but it is written, “[Because he has despised the word of the Lord, and has broken his commandment], that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him.” Now, [seeing that] he shall utterly be cut off in this world, when shall his iniquity be upon him? surely in the next world.

Sanhedrin 90b

So you see that Chazal interpret verses as they please and even dare say that in this way they drive back those who object to the faith in the resurrection of the dead.



In the Middle Ages Maimonides attempted to return to the old faith, to eliminate the importance of the resurrection of the dead and to emphasize spiritual sublimity in this world. The effort utterly failed. In his view, anyone who did not see as his goal the attaining of wisdom in this world was like a child who learns to get a reward from his parents. Maimonides wrote (in his Commentary on the Mishnayot, Tractate Sanhedrin, chapter 10): “Anyone who places anything above wisdom as a goal and says ‘I will learn to attain glory’ is considered by the Sages to be learning not for learning’s own sake…learning for the sake of wisdom is striving to know it alone, and the goal of truth is knowing the truth, and that the Torah is truth; the goal of knowing it is to fulfill it…It is inappropriate for one who wishes to serve out of love to serve in hopes of attaining the World to Come.”



In our era Orthodox Judaism is thought to be a puzzling cult, even to itself.

In the modern age, after the scientific revolution and the enlightenment, the Jewish religion is irrelevant and has nothing to offer as a serious alternative to enlightened values and the developments of science. They have no choice but to cast their lot with the World to come, where they will find shelter, rest, and hope. As the Sages of the Mishnah and the Talmud boosted the importance of the World to Come because of their low economic and security status, so do the Orthodox of our times. Though their economic and security status is satisfactory, their spiritual level is at an all-time low and they hold nothing in their hands but meaningless obsolete texts, which they well know. They have no choice but to turn this world into something subordinate to the World to Come.



This should make the humanists, who seek the happiness of man here, in this world, stay awake nights. In Israel every fourth child learns in the independent Charedi school system and learns that man’s happiness in this world is irrelevant in the face of his happiness in the World to Come. Given this dangerous worldview it is no wonder that religious people are prepared to die to sanctify G-d’s name — a concept which can be interpreted very widely.



Sincerely,



Daat Emet