Where Did the Sages Reveal to Us That the Next World Is Not Material?

Dror from Kiryat asks: "I heard an inspiring lecture by Rabbi Zamir Cohen where he said the spiritual world is united without divisions, and each soul perceives Hashem according to the spiritual capacity it built in this world. I would like sources from Judaism for further study. Thank you."

* * *

Hello and blessings, Dror, and thank you for your interest. The Sages have stated these things explicitly in Tractate Chagigah (page 15, a): "Above there is no sitting and no standing, no back and no fatigue."

The Sages taught us that in the next world there is no concept of sitting or standing, no separation and no connection, because the next world is not material. The Sages also taught about the next world (Tractate Berakhot, page 17, a): "In the next world, there is neither eating nor drinking, nor reproduction, nor business dealings, nor jealousy nor hatred nor competition, but the righteous sit with their crowns on their heads, and enjoy the splendor of the Divine Presence." From here, we can also learn that all the sayings of the Sages about eating and drinking in the next world were said metaphorically and artistically so that they would be understood by the human mind.

Many indeed err in understanding the concept of "the next world." In the Tanakh, you will find many mentions that Hashem judges souls for all their deeds, the righteous earn reward, and the wicked receive punishment (Ecclesiastes 12:7): "And the spirit returns to Hashem who gave it... Fear Hashem and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man. For Hashem will bring every deed to judgment, on everything hidden, whether good or evil."

This is also one of the foundations of faith in Judaism, to believe that Hashem rewards the righteous well and punishes the wicked. But how Gan Eden or Gehenna appears is beyond our comprehension. Most descriptions of the next world in the Gemara are expressed in language that can be understood by our minds because surely if souls from the world of truth would try to describe the next world to a body-bound person, they would do so in tangible terms. But surely, these things are beyond our understanding, and trying to comprehend the next world is akin to a fish trying to understand life out of water.

This is how Maimonides writes in the Mishneh Torah (Laws of Repentance, Chapter 8): "In the next world there is no body and no corporeality, only the souls of the righteous without a body, like ministering angels... and nothing that happens to bodies in this world, such as sitting and standing, sleep and death, will happen there... Also, what they said "their crowns on their heads," means the knowledge they knew, through which they earned life in the next world, is present with them, and it is their crown."

However, it is also worth knowing that even in this world, which deceives us, there is actually unity because everything derives from His blessing. The separations are just an illusion. Everything stems from His simple unity, and not from what we see here. He is blessed, fills the entire world, as it is said (Jeremiah 23:24): "Do I not fill heaven and earth? says Hashem." The Sages say that Hashem fills the whole world just as the soul fills the entire body, and as the Zohar says: "There is no place empty of Him." Even nature exists by miraculous power.

Since Hashem is absolutely one, all reality actually derives from His unity, and therefore there is a connection between all existing things. The next world is the true world, where we see things as they are, as they really are, and not through the shell of this world. With Hashem's help, we will be strengthened in observing the commandments and merit to remove the shells.