635. This World and the Next World – 1

“One hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is better than all of the life of the next world, and one hour of contentment in the next world is better than all the life in this world.” We should ask about this, since it is known that usually the reward is more important than the work, since man observes “By the sweat of your brow,” and his reward is “you shall eat bread.” That is, if a person enjoys his work, but at the same time his salary is far greater than his work, how did they say that one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is better than all the life of the next world?

In other words, by exerting in repentance and good deeds in this world, one is rewarded with the next world. It therefore follows that one should calculate, and if he wants to see how much his reward in the next world is worth, he can assume that the whole of the life in the next world is worth one hour in repentance and good deeds.

But who would want to work in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] when he knows what taste he feels in Torah and Mitzvot? It therefore follows that the next world is even worse!

But according to the Sulam commentary [on The Zohar], the “next world” means lights of Hassadim, regarded as Bina, and “this world” is called Malchut, which is lights of Hochma.

He tells us that if a person has been rewarded with the next world, which is the quality of bestowal, he should know that it is worthwhile to work in repentance and good deeds of the quality of this world, which is the quality of Hochma, since this is regarded as reception in order to bestow, and this is the purpose of creation.

Hence, one should not position oneself in the state of bestowing in order to bestow, which is the quality of light of Hassadim, the quality of Bina or “the next world.” Rather, one should continue one’s work and achieve the quality of “this world,” regarded as Malchut.