With this, I’d like to open a topic that will lead us to Shavuot. The Gemara says (Berachot 17a): When the Chachamim parted from each other, as they left the Yeshiva, they would say to each other: “May you see your world in your lifetime, and may your end be for the life of the World to Come.” What a wonderful blessing! But what does it mean? To understand what lies here, we need to study another Gemara.
The Gemara (Pesachim 50a) relates that Rav Yosef, the son of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, fell ill and fainted; he suffered a cardiac arrest and was in clinical death. When he recovered, his father asked him: “What did you see?” Rav Yosef said to his father: “I saw an upside-down world! Those who are high in this world are low in the Olam Haba – it’s unbelievable what goes on there! I recognized a Jew here who seemed righteous, with peiyos, a suit, a hat, etc. Everyone who passed him on the street would kiss his hand. I was sure that when I got up there, I would see him sitting in the front row in Gan Eden, maybe the second or third at most. But I got up there, and suddenly I saw him sitting in the sixtieth row! And those who are low in this world are high in the Olam Haba! I went down to see who was in the second row, and do you know who I saw? David the shoemaker on Elcharizi Street! I didn’t recognize him because he always had nails in his mouth! I came back shocked! Simply unbelievable!” Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said to him: “My son, עוֹלָם בָּרוּר רָאִיתָ – you saw a clear world!”
I would like to explain the yesod underlying the Gemara’s words, and in truth, these are the words of Rav Yisrael Salanter. At first glance, Rav Yosef’s words are not understood. He came back from above and said he didn’t understand what was going on there. He was sure rabbis would be in the front row and shoemakers in the last row, but he got there and saw the exact opposite: shoemakers in the front row, rabbis in the last! Did Rav Yosef not know there are imposters in this world? What didn’t he understand? Did he think that everything that shines in this world is truly a gem? Didn’t Chazal say כִּי הָאָדָם יִרְאֶה לַעֵינַיִם וַה' יִרְאֶה לַלֵּבָב – For man looks at the eyes, but G-d looks at the heart? Does anyone really know what a person does within the walls of his home?
Chazal say in the Yerushalmi (Nedarim, 3:8): In the future, Eisav the wicked will wrap himself in his tallit and sit with the righteous in Gan Eden to see their greatness, thinking perhaps the merit of his fathers will stand for him. Hakadosh Baruch Hu will drag him out from there to show him that he has no merit of his fathers, as he is not called Zera Avraham and Zera Yitzchak, for he despised his birthright and sold it to Yaakov for lentils, thereby removing himself from being called their seed.
Thus, Eisav thought he deserved Gan Eden. Why? Because he honored his parents! The Midrash says (Devarim Rabbah, 1:15), no creature honored its parents like Eisav honored his. But despite his honoring of his parents, it was not enough for him to enter Gan Eden. After all, what was Eisav’s internal response to his father?
Now Eisav harbored a grudge against Yaacov because of the blessing which his father had given him, and Eisav said to himself, “Let but the mourning period of my father come, and I will kill my brother Yaacov.”
Outwardly, everyone saw him as a “righteous” man honoring his father, but they did not see what lay in his heart! If so, why was Rav Yosef so surprised that in this world he saw people who appeared and were considered righteous, but in Heaven, it turned out they were wicked?
In Seder HaDorot, a story is recounted about a man named Rabbi Yehoshua ben Elem, who once dreamed that he and a humble butcher named Nanas shared an equal portion in Gan Eden. Shocked, he questioned how all his Torah learning and lifelong devotion to performing Mitzvot and good deeds could be equated with that of a butcher. Determined to understand, he sought Nanas out and asked about his deeds. Nanas explained that he cares daily for his elderly, immobile parents – feeding, clothing, and bathing them with his own hands. Rabbi Yehoshua kissed his head and said, “Fortunate are you, and fortunate am I to be your companion in Gan Eden.”
At first glance, this seems incomprehensible. How can Hakadosh Baruch Hu equate a great Torah scholar – who never strayed from the Mitzvot and taught eighty students – with a simple butcher whose primary merit was caring for his parents? Are these two paths truly on the same level?
Let us move to the next stage. The Gemara in Berachot tells us that when the Chachamim parted from one another, one would bless the other: “May you see your world in your lifetime.” What is the meaning of their bracha? Shlomo HaMelech says: כִּי הֹלֵךְ הָאָדָם אֶל בֵּית עוֹלָמוֹ – For man goes to his eternal home. This means that every person has his own world. We find this in Parshat Emor, when the blasphemer cursed the Name of Hashem – it is said there, וַיֵּצֵא – and he went out. Where did he go out? Rashi says, he went out from his world.
The Ramchal writes (Mesilat Yesharim 1:1):
The foundation of piety and the root of perfect service [of G-d] is for a man to clarify and come to realize as truth what is his obligation in his world.
At first glance, the Ramchal should have said בָּעוֹלָם – in the world, but instead he writes בְּעוֹלָמוֹ – in his world. The Vilna Gaon already said that there is not a single superfluous word in the Ramchal’s writings. If so, why did he choose to...
