Special thank you to my Editor In Chief who for better or for worse is “stuck” in Eretz Yisrael and is moser nefesh to still edit on time with the major time change and being displaced from his house. May we all join him and come home bimheira biyameinu in ever lasting peace with the Geula Shleima, amen kein yehi ratzon!
There is a powerful message of belief in The World To Come found in a poem written by the Ramban at the conclusion of Sefer Shemos. We will be closing out this Sefer with this week’s double portion of Vayakhel and Pekudei.
Here’s the translation of the poem, from the Rome’s edition of the Ramban’s commentary on the Torah: “And behold we have completed The Book of Redemption that Hashem the G-D of the Jews came in it to ‘the Children of Israel, His nation who is close to Him’ (Tehillim 148:14). He saved [Israel] from the hands of his hated ones, and He redeemed him from the hands of his enemy. And to him He came with thousands of angels and tens of thousands of chariots (paraphrase of Tehillim 68:18) to give to him the Torah of Truth to ‘bequeath something to the nation that loves Him’ (paraphrase Mishlei 8:21). He built a ‘House of Abode’ (stylist paraphrase of Melach Alef 8:13) to rest His Holy Presence amongst the keruvim and a ‘holy place for the sanctuary’ (stylistic paraphrase of Yechezkel 45:4) for The King and His Table (stylistic citation of Shir HaShirim 1:12). And blessed is Hashem who desires peace of His servant (based on Tehillim 35:27) that until now has helped him to this far (based on Shmuel Alef 7:12), Who has invigorated him in his old age (based on Tehillim103:5), Who has sated his hunger with His Torah, and Who had fed him milk and honey (Devarim 32:13), because he has dedicated his heart [to Him] (based on Divrei Hayamim beis 33:19) and in His name he blesses morning and night (referring to krias shema). ‘Blessed Who we eat from Him and [sustains] our life with good’ (Paraphrased from birkas hamazon).” (Click here for Hebrew text.)
The poem summarizes the book of Shemos, mentioning the miraculous Exodus from Egypt, the incredible spectacle of the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai, the building of the mishkan, (Hashem’s palace for His Holy Presence in this world), and His wondrously sustaining us with the manna. The poem is blessing and praising Hashem for allowing us this and giving us the opportunity to walk in His ways.
Within the poem he mentions a line about Hashem giving us “something;” this is based on the pasuk in Mishley 8:21 which states, “I have ‘something’ to bequeath to those who love Me, and I shall fill thier storehouses.” Rashi and Metzudas Dovid says this ‘something’ is a ‘something’ which is a lot, and the Ibn Ezra (and similarly the Radak) say it’s a nickname for Olam Haba, the World To Come. The Vilna Gaon on this pasuk goes into even more detail, stating that this world is qualitatively and quantitatively ‘nothing’ compared to the Next World, a world of eternity, with everlasting reward, which is considered ‘something’. The ‘everything,’ I would humbly say, is obviously the Almighty King Of All Kings Master Of The Universe, who creates and sustains all of existence; so He really is ‘Everything’. (Click here for Hebrew text.)
Based on this, we can understand this poem from the Ramban as blessing and praising Hashem for giving the generation in the desert such an easy opportunity to come close to Him and fulfill their mission in this world and bequeathed that opportunity to us till this day. As the Mesilas Yesharim points out in its first chapter, “Our sages of blessed memory have taught us that man was created for the sole purpose of rejoicing in Hashem and deriving pleasure from the splendor of His Presence; for this is true joy and the greatest pleasure that can be found. The place where this joy may truly be derived is the World To Come, which was expressly created to provide for it; but the path to the object of our desires is this world.” (Click here for Hebrew text.)
The Ralbag on this pasuk in Mishlei has a different take of what this “something” is. This turns out to be how to develop a method serving Hashem properly, creating the ultimate close bond with Him. The Ralbag says, “To bequeath to his loved ones ‘something’ refers to the knowledge that is agreed to by The One Who Exists (meaning Hashem) for in this way a person will reach success, and the opposite is the knowledge that is not agreed upon by The One Who Exists (i.e. Hashem, meaning a person’s success is solely dependent on knowing, understanding and living by the Handbook of mankind, i.e. the Torah.) This is acutely illustrated in the gemara, mentioned a couple times in Shas, Sukkah 28a and Bava Basra 134a, “The Rabbis taught in a braisa, Hillel Hazaken had 80 students. Thirty of whom were worthy that the Divine Presence should rest upon them as it did on Moshe Rabbeinu. Thirty of whom were worthy that the sun should stand for them as it did for Yehoshua bin Nun. Twenty who ranked in between. The greatest of them was Yonasan ben Uziel and the least of them was Rabban Yochanan ben Zachai. They said of Rabban Yochanan ben Zachai that he did not leave unmastered: scripture, mishna, gemara, halachos and aggados, scriptural inferences and rabbinic inferences, kal vachomers, gezeira shavahs, astronomical cycles, gematriyios, the speech of ministering angels, the speech of demons, and the speech of palm trees, parables of launderers, parables of foxes and a great matter and a small matter. A great matter refers to Maasei Merkava and a small matter refers to the inquiries of Abaye and Rava. [Through these students] there is a fulfillment of that which is stated (Mishley 8:21) ‘To bequeath something to those who love Me and I will fill their storehouses.'” (Click here for Hebrew text.)