First of all, welcome everybody to the second lecture of this series that we're going to have. As you all saw the posters, we're going to have four lectures, four different topics. Actually, the last one is divided into two, we're going to have five topics. The next one will not be next week, but it'll be in a few weeks, as you see on the poster, the exact dates. The topic that's been chosen for tonight is it's a bit of an awkward topic, you could say, but it's a topic which was asked by by some people that we should discuss this. And this is death, another dimension, meaning this is the discussion concerning life after death, or as some would say, life after life. We have the life in this world, and then, when a person passes on, he starts another dimension, another type of life, and this is the discussion that we're going to have tonight. I would like to start with a famous maamar Chazal that it says in Pirkei Avot. It says that one of the Tannaim said, one of the great scholars, the great rabbi said, אל תהיו כעבדים המשמשין את הרב על מנת לקבל פרס, you shall not be like those servants who serve their master in order to receive rewards, אלא הוו כעבדים המשמשין את הרב שלא על מנת לקבל פרס, you should be like servants who serve their master and don't expect to get rewards, not for the sake of the rewards. Based on this statement, there were some people who came to a conclusion that there is no reward, that whatever we do in this world, that's it, and there is no more reward. After all, that's what it says: do not serve your master, do not serve Hashem in order to seek to receive reward, as if there is no reward. And this is where the two groups called the Tzedukim and the Beitusim started. There were two people, one was called Tzedok, one was called Beitus, and when they heard this statement from their teacher, they said, \"Ah, if so, that means that there is no reward, then why in the world should we do all this?\" And they turned away, and they started a whole movement which was later known as the movement of the Tzedukim, because they were followers of Tzedok, and the movement of the Beitusim, they were followers of Beitus. The truth is this is a mistake. What it says there is not that chas v'shalom, God forbid, there is no reward after you finish your work on this world. What it means is that a person should not do it because of the reward. We have to do the right thing because God wants us to do it. We have to do the right thing because that's the right thing to do, not because we're going to get rewards. But nevertheless, the reward is there. And the reward will be will come after the person lives his life in this world, so then God promises that He will give a reward in the world to come. The pasuk says, היום לעשותם, today is a time to do. And Rashi says, and taken from the Chazal, that what it means is היום לעשותם ומחר לקבל שכרם. Today you work, tomorrow you will get your reward. Today meaning while you're alive in this world, that's when we work, we serve Hashem, and then in the world to come we will get reward. Which means not as the some the opinion of some of those people, the Tzedukim, the Beitusim, and as a matter of fact, there are some Jews nowadays who belong to certain movements who claim officially that they don't believe in life after life. There is nothing later, that's what they say. The truth is that we know it's not so. And let me explain it a little bit. The emet is, the truth is, who bichlal is able to know whether there is life after life or not? Who could know that? Did anyone ever come back from there to tell us what goes on there? Who could bichlal anyway could give an opinion to say what happens after a person passes away? The truth is there are some people who claim that they had a dream that he passed away, or a dream that somebody from yener velt, as we call it, came and told him this and told him that. Is that really enough for us to rely and make statements that there is a life after life, and it is so and so and so, because somebody said he had a dream? Maybe he had an illusion. How do we know? And bichlal, can we rely on dreams? There is a pasuk that says חלומות שוא ידברו, that dreams are not true, we can't rely on dreams. So all these dreams and all these different things that people say is not enough for anybody to give an opinion and say whether there is life after death, or there is no life after death, whatever goes on there, who could give an opinion? Therefore, the only one that could give an opinion is the one that comes from that world, so to speak, the one that has a connection to these higher worlds, he is able to say what goes on there. And who is that? Only one, that is Hashem. If Hashem tells us that there is a life after a person lives his life in this world, then we know that this is true. The truth is if somebody does not believe in Hashem, or somebody does not believe in the Torah, then the truth is that this person has no way of knowing whether there is life after life, or there is no life after life. But we are talking here about people who have the proper emunah, the proper belief, people who believe in Hashem, people who believe in the Torah, we believe that the Torah is min hashamayim, we believe and we know that the Torah was given to us by Hashem. And therefore, if Hashem says in the Torah that there is life after life, then we know that this is true. And anybody else, whether he is from the Conservative movement, the Reform movement, who claim and give opinions that there is no life, or it's this way and that way, as long as they base their opinions on their own understanding, we already know that this cannot be accepted. Because how can a person with his own understanding, who lives in this world, give an opinion what goes on in the other world, or whether there is another world? How can he know? It's a narishkeit, it's a stupidity to begin with, to give an opinion whether there is or there isn't and what is there. Therefore, the only way we could know is if it came from the Torah, the Torah which is given min hashamayim. And if we believe and we know that whatever it says in the Torah is true, not because it was decided by a human being, but it's true because it was given to us by God, so if God says that there is life after life, then we know that this is true. And the truth is the way the Torah tells us is not only that there is life after the life in this world, but it's a much better life and a much truer life. It's a life that doesn't depend on the body, it's a life that will never stop, it's a life that cannot be destroyed. Not like the physical life that excuse me, that we have in this world, that this life at certain points stops. A person lives a certain amount of years. The pasuk says that a person lives שבעים שנה, 70 years, ואם בגבורות שמונים שנה, if a person is strong, he lives 80 years. Then there's a pasuk that says והיו ימיו מאה ועשרים שנה, a person should live till 120, but there will come an end to the life of the physical life of a person. The life that the Torah tells us that takes place after a person passes away, being that that's not a life that's connected with a person's physical body, that's a life that cannot stop, it cannot be destroyed. That's a spiritual life that has to do with the soul rather than with the body. And I will explain that.

Every person understands that a human being is made up of two parts: of a guf and a nefesh. A human being is made up of a body and a soul. And when I'm talking about a soul at this point, I don't mean what we call the neshamah. The neshamah, this is the holy soul that a Yid has. At that at this point I am not referring to this. When I say there is a guf and a nefesh, a body and a soul, I mean the nefesh, the life of a person. A human being has a life. Even a non-Jew is also alive, and this is another entity that's in this person other than the body. He has the body, and he has the life. The best proof is that there is a possibility for the body to be there and nevertheless not to be alive. Obviously, there is the body, and then there is this chiyut, this life, which we will call nefesh, the soul which exists in the body, but that's a separate entity which is in the body, and therefore there is a possibility for it to leave, and therefore the body is left as a body without a life. All the different koachot, senses, attributes, all the different things that a person has, whether it's the ability to see or to hear, the ability to understand or to feel, all these different things come from the life, not from the body. It is not the eye, the physical eye that makes a person see. A person, Rachmana litzlan, who is not alive, also has an eye, but he can't see. Why not? Because he doesn't have the life. The life of the person, that is the source of the person's ability to see. The eye is just the kli, the vessel into which this ability that comes from of the nefesh comes into, and that's how the person sees. The same with everything else. The person's brain understands, the person's mind thinks, but it is not the physical brain that has the power of understanding. Since the person is alive, the life that there is in the person goes into the person's brain and makes the person understand. And the same is with everything else the person has. There's an ability to feel. There's a feeling of ahavah, of love, there's a feeling of yirah, of fear, even a feeling of hate. All this does not come from the physical body. The physical body, the flesh, is no different than a piece of meat that we have in the pot. That's all it is. Why is this person a person and he's not just a piece of meat? Because this person is alive. When we say he's alive, what does that mean? That in his body there is the life, and the life gives the person whatever a human being has, all these attributes. And this is the most important part of the person. When you say you like the person, you like a certain person, does it mean you like his piece of flesh? You like the piece of meat? You like this human being because he is alive, and he has the sechel, he has all the different things that a life gives him, and that's what you are connected to. So the main part of the person is his life. Now the life a person has is completely different, is a being, a true existence, a true being, but a different being than the body. There is an existence which we call life. As I just said, there is a possibility for a person not to be alive, and for a person to be alive. So there is there is a metziut, a being which is called the nefesh, the life of the person. This being cannot be seen. That's why to us we don't really know in our mind, we don't accept it so fast that there is a metziut, a true existing being which is called life, because since we are physical people, so to us what is called a metziut, a being? A physical object, something that's tangible, something that that you can see. Something that's a little bit abstract, so it's harder for us to grasp and to admit that this is a being. But in truth, the fact that a person has a nefesh is a true being, and not only that, it's more true than the existence of the body, and I'll explain how. On one hand, it might seem strange. The body is a true existence, we see it. Here, I have a hand and we see it, the can is on top and we could feel it, this is an existence. The life we cannot see, we cannot feel, we cannot grasp, but in truth, that is a stronger and more amitishe, a more true existence than the existence of the body, and I'll explain why. We know the rule that the Rambam gives and is brought down in many other sefarim, that anything that will eventually be destroyed, even while it exists, it's not really a true existence. If it would be a true existence, then this would exist forever. If something stops being at a certain point, that means that while it's there, it's not really called there, because potentially it's going to stop being. So even while it's there, in truth, in depth, it's not really there. It's really based on a Mishnah. The Mishnah says there's a din concerning פרה אדומה, I don't want to go into the details of the halachah, you must use water from a well, and the Torah refers to that water as מים חיים, which means live water. And the Mishnah says that if you have a well which dries up once in seven years, there are certain types of wells that dry up after a while, the Mishnah calls it מים המכזבים, waters that lie, and this cannot be used for the פרה אדומה, because it's not called מים חיים, it's not called alive. What do you mean it's not called alive? It's fresh water, good water, now it's there. But being that eventually it's not going to be there, now it's not really alive, that's what the Mishnah says. And the way the Rambam explains it is because anything that will eventually stop being, potentially it's not there now too. And therefore, when we look at the body, the body is here, and what happens after a hundred and twenty? The body dries up and it's not there anymore. So even while the body is there, really it's not a true existence, because potentially it's not going to exist. And this applies not only to the body, to everything in the world. Since eventually it's going to stop, and as we see, things do eventually stop, that means that while it's there, it's not there. It's similar to what it says in the Rabbeinu Bachya, famous Rabbeinu Bachya was one of the big Rishonim, he explains the peshat in the pasuk: when Adam Harishon ate from the עץ הדעת, ate from the tree, Hashem said to him, \"Remember, the day you're going to eat from that tree, מות תמות, you're going to die.\" What happened? He ate from the tree, and he lived for another 930 years. Where is Hashem's promise, warning, that if you, the day you're going to eat from the tree, you're going to die? So the Rabbeinu Bachya explains that התינוק משעה שנולד מתחיל להתייבש. A child, from the moment he is born, starts dying. The fact that eventually this person is going to die, that means that in theory or potentially, death started already. Before Adam Harishon ate from the עץ הדעת, since there was no potential death, he was alive. Hashem said to him, \"The day you're going to eat from here, you're going to die.\" That means that day Hashem gave the gezeirah, the decree of death, so that moment, potentially, he started dying. Why? Because if it's going to happen eventually, so now already potentially it's there, it's not a true being. And this applies to everything that exists in the world, because we see things rot. You have fruit, it rots, and eventually if you leave it for a long, long time, it's going to rot and become nothing. So while it's there, you're really not a true being. There are certain things that we look at this and it seems like that is always going to exist. For instance, take a rock. A rock is also part of this physical world which was created by God. Now, we don't see that a rock rots slowly. We don't see why we should say eventually it should rot. But the truth is, also based on what the Rambam writes in his Moreh Nevuchim, that in theory, he says we must say that eventually it will rot. Now, maybe it might not take a year, two years, five years, it could take a billion years. In theory, if the world would exist a billion years from now, then it will have to rot. And he gives a logical explanation. It's a very philosophical explanation, but he gives that explanation. He says like this: כל הוה נפסד. Anything that was created, which means anything that started at a certain point, must come to an end. It is impossible for something that has a beginning should never, should not ever have an end, which would mean if that would be true, that would mean we would be saying that this thing is unlimited, לבלי גבול, at one end, and limited at the other. It started at a certain point, which means it's limited, being that it started today and wasn't there yesterday, that means that it has a starting point, it's limited from here on on. So to be limited in the beginning and not be limited at the end, which means it should go on forever and never stop, that's an impossibility, because you can't have a combination of limit and unlimit, finite and infinite, it's a contradiction. And the best proof is, what would be if you would chop off a piece of something that's unlimited and limited from one side, will it become smaller or not? I don't want to get into that point, but it's definitely a logical understanding that it's impossible for something to be limited on one side and unlimited at the other. Is it limited or not? And therefore, the Rambam says anything that started at a certain point, which means it was created, and therefore before it wasn't there, so it's limited in the beginning, has to be limited at the end. The lashon, the expression the Rambam uses is כל שיש לו תחילה יש לו סוף. Anything that has a beginning must have an end. The only thing is, some things will come to its end in a short time, for some things it will come to an end a long time. Some things we might wait, in theory, a billion years till it will come to an end, but in theory, everything that started, that was created, must come to an end. Now getting back to the original point: anything that will eventually come to an end means that while it's there, it's not really there. Potentially, already is not there because it will come to an end. So this applies to everything that we have in the creation. Being that everything will come to an end, so everything while it's there is not really there. So all the physical objects, including the physical body of human beings, as much as it looks to us as a true metziut, as a being, but in theory, it is not really a true being because potentially it's not going to be there. But when we look at the nefesh, the soul, the life, and as I explained before that the logical understanding that every human being has this separate entity which we call life, that is not physical. And therefore that is not limited to the same limit and to the same potential as the person's body. But nevertheless, it is not so true what I just said, because the life of the person was also created. The fact that a person has the body, the guf, and has the nefesh, has this life within him, which is a separate entity, is also a creation of Hashem. So that also has a beginning. So we can say the same thing, that this life that's there in every human being, since it has a beginning, will eventually have to have an end, and if it eventually has an end, while it's there it's not really there. So therefore that is true. Therefore we come to our next point, the next stage, that there is a difference between the life of a Yid and the life of a non-Jew, the life of a goy. The life of a goy is part of the creation. Just like God created the body, God created his life. He made a body, put in a life, they're both creations. The body is a physical creation, the life is a spiritual creation, but they're both part of the creation. Both potentially will come to an end, therefore both are not really a true existence while they're there. The nefesh that is there by a Yid, that is a nefesh that is not part of the creation. Now someone might say, \"Prove it!\" I'm not going to prove it. We're not talking here about proving the truth of the Torah. That's a separate subject altogether, for that we need a separate lecture to prove that whatever it says in the Torah is true. But we are now going on the assumption that we all understand that whatever it says in the תורה is true. Now, if it says in the Torah that every Yid has a neshamah, not only a nefesh which is the life, which a non-Jew also has, and the proof is there is a non-Jew who's alive, you can have a person, a non-Jew who's not alive. Obviously the difference is he has this nefesh, he doesn't. He has the seichel that comes from the nefesh, he doesn't. So that everyone has. But a Jew has, in addition to that, a neshamah which is called in Kabbalah the נפש האלקית, the godly soul. And that is a חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש. That is actually part of Hashem. As it says in Chumash, in Parashat Ha'azinu, כי חלק השם עמו, that that עמו, השם's nation, is part of Hashem. Now, being that this is part of Hashem, the neshama a Yid has is not a creation, it's not part of the creation. It came down into this world through a form of creation, now I don't want to get into that discussion either because we say every morning in דאוונען, אלקי נשמה שנתת בי טהורה היא אתה בראתה, so we do say you created it, but that's only a form of the neshama coming down. But originally, the beginning of every Jew's neshama is directly from Hashem Himself, it's part of Hashem. Just like Hashem is not part of the creation, but He is rather the Creator, so the neshama that we have within us, that every Yid has, is not part of the creation. Hashem put into every single Jew part of Himself, and He said, \"This is in addition to the life that you have as a human being, there is a neshama that you have.\" And that neshama didn't start because it was always there, and therefore, if it has no techilah, it has no beginning, it definitely has no end. Like we said before, you can't have something unlimited on one side, infinite on one side, and limited, finite on the other side. So just like we said it before in the other direction, the same applies here. If this didn't start ever, it's unlimited in the beginning, so it has to be unlimited in the end, which means the neshama of a Yid will always exist, never stop. And therefore, while it's there now, when we we have the neshama, there is no potentiality in this neshama to stop, and therefore it is a true existence. The body or this life that is there as part of the creation, being that eventually it's going to stop, so potentially it has it's now at this point we'll we know potentially it will stop, so it's not a true being. But the neshama of a Yid is a true being. That is the reason why it says in Pirkei Avot, we say it in Pirkei Avot: כל ישראל יש להם חלק לעולם הבא. Every single Jew has a part in the World to Come, and this refers to the time after Mashiach, when there's going to be תחיית המתים, the resurrection of the dead, so then every single Yid will become alive again. Why? Because being that every single Yid has this neshama, this neshama is eternal, so therefore eventually he's going to come back. You can't say that there will be a time when it will stop. So every single Jew's neshama exists and will continue existing. Concerning non-Jews, well there it depends. It says in the Rambam: חסידי אומות העולם, the righteous of amongst the goyim, they will also have a share in the World to Come, and the reason is, being that they were righteous, they also acquired some kedusha, some holiness, and some part of Hashem which is eternal. But by a Yid, being that a Yid has this neshama, so whatever a Yid did, whether he was righteous or not righteous, the fact that he was a Yid, which means he was born to a Jewish mother or was converted according to the way the Torah says, this person has a neshama. How do we know? Hashem said so. Hashem told us in the Torah. And if he has a neshama, this neshama is eternal, so this neshama is going to last forever. So all I'm trying to bring out at this point is that when we start comparing the existence, the true existence of the body compared to the neshama, in theory and understanding, the body is not a true existence. And therefore, the life that the body leads, when we are alive in this body, is not really a true existence, which means a true life. While when we're talking about the life that applies to the neshama, being that a neshama is a true existence, the life of the neshama is a true life.

And therefore, when a person passes on from this world, so what happened here? Did the neshama die? Chas v'Shalom. We said the neshama is part of Hashem, cannot die. What happened? The body died. So the life of the body stopped, but the neshama continues existing. If the neshama continues existing, then that means that this person continues existing. And as I said before, the main part of the person is not the body, the main part of the person is not his flesh. When you like somebody, you don't say you like his body, his physical body, you like the person because of his nefesh, and by a Yid because of his neshama. That is the main part of the person. So it comes out when a person passes away and his body dies, he, the real he, continues to live. It goes on into another world, another dimension, a type of life that we, being that we are here in this physical world, cannot grasp. Being that that's spiritual, we are in this world with a physical body, so all we could understand and grasp are only physical matters. But when it comes to spiritual matters we can't understand. But as we say, צי דען, if because we don't understand, that means that it's not true? It would be saying that when two people, there's an mashal given that there were two people riding in a horse and buggy. Now the horses did not understand what the two people were talking about. They were talking about great philosophical ideas. Now צי דען, because the horses don't understand this philosophical idea, that means that this idea is not true? And as far as a horse is from an idea, we in this life are further from a spiritual life. So how can we expect to understand and know what it is? But because we don't understand, that means that it's true? There's an interesting mashal given to this, of two children, twins, that were being born, and they were both in their mother's womb. And to them, as far as they were concerned, they didn't know of any world. To them, their whole life was in this dark womb of the mother. And that's where they were, they lived there for nine months. And they stayed there, and that's all of existence to them. They ate the way a child in the mother's stomach eats, and that's what they lived on. What happened later? Later, all of a sudden, one of the twins, one of the brothers turns around and he sees that his twin is not there anymore. Oy vey, he started crying, אוי וויי ער איז געשטארבן, he died, he's not there, Oy vey, and what am I, what's going to happen to me? So he hears from the other side, Mazel tov, mazel tov! The child was born! What happened? He went out from this stage of life, went out into another stage of life, even a better stage of life. To the child who doesn't know any better, the first one, to him it means he left him, he left his world, and that's it, so he died. The truth is, there's a mazel tov, he was born, he went into another world, and there he's going to live a better life. And the same applies here. We are in this world, we live a physical life, and that's what we understand. We have no understanding, no way of grasping what goes on in the spiritual world. But the fact is, being that we come to this logical understanding that we do have this life, the Torah tells us we do have this neshama which continues existing because it's a true existence, so obviously there must be another life. And the Torah tells us clearly that after the neshama leaves this world, there is another level of life that continues going on, but not a physical life. This is really the essence of this great mitzvah that we have, which is called ניחום אבלים. When a person is an avel, God forbid, sitting shiva, there is a mitzvah of going to comfort the avel. What is the meaning of the mitzvah? We come and we tell the avel, you know, don't feel so bad, etc., etc. And when we find in the Torah, what does it say to say to the person? We say to the person, Hashem will comfort you. And one of the main things we tell the person is don't feel so bad, after all, he went to another stage in life, and not Chas v'Shalom he's away, etc., etc. Now when the Torah tells us that we have to tell this to the avel, it's not that the Torah just wants us to make the person feel good. Some people think, just to make a person feel good at a time when he feels so sad, so you have to say that. The Torah doesn't make jokes, and the Torah doesn't say things which are not true. This is the truth. How do we know? So again Then, if we have the basis that the Torah is true, then we don't have to question this. So the Torah tells us this is true. So what are we telling the אבל? The truth. The truth is that you should know that even though physically this person passed away, nevertheless, he didn't stop living, he's living in a higher life. And that is the reason for the דין. There is a דין that a person is not allowed to mourn too much. A person is not allowed to cry too much over a family member who passed away. And this is the reason. Because if a person cries too much, as if he shows he doesn't believe that this person is continuing to live, he thinks it stopped. A little bit, it says you're allowed to. First of all, it's human nature. Second of all, it says, because as far as we are concerned in this world, we lost this close communication on our level. One thing is for sure, that is called a world of truth. This world is called עולם השקר, עלמא דשקרא, a world of falsehood, a world of lies. The world to come, where the נשמה goes after it leaves this world, is called an עולם האמת, it's a world of truth. The Gemara tells an interesting story that there was one great rabbi who actually passed away or almost passed away, and somehow they revived him. When he came back, I think it was the son of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi if I remember correctly, his father asked him, \"What did you see there?\" He says, \"You know what I saw? I saw עליונים למטה ותחתונים למעלה.\" People who down here seem to be great, up there, they're not such a high level. People who down here are not such a high level, over there they seem to be great. So his father tells him, \"It looks like עולם הפוך ראית. You saw a turned around world, a mixed up world.\" So he says, \"No, עולם ברור ראיתי. I saw the true world. In this world, people could make a put up a show. We don't know what goes on in a person's heart. It says the חז״ל say that you can have a person who outwardly seems like he loves you, in his heart he might hate you, you don't know what goes on. Over there, it's a world of truth, so everything is true.\" By the way, it says there, he asked him, \"How are we up there? What's our status?\" He says, \"We're pretty good up there.\" But the truth is, there it's a true world. Plus, being that it's a true world, an עולם האמת, the נשמה that goes up to that world sees the truth. What is the truth? So this is connected to what we learned about last week. There's a pasuk that tells us what is the truth. The truth is, ואמת ה׳ לעולם. The truth is that the true being is God. Down here, we don't see it. We have to work very hard to come to the recognition that the real truth is the existence of Hashem, and therefore His commandment and His Torah and everything that He wants, we have to work hard to understand that. When the נשמה goes up after it leaves the body, and it's not anymore part of this physical world, and it lives a life of truth, there it sees the truth. It sees that the true being is Hashem and everything that's connected to Hashem. And when the נשמה in that world looks down here at this world, and sees the actions of the people, it feels very bad. It has nothing it can do about it, because as soon as it goes to that world, it can't come down to communicate. But there, when it sees the truth, it looks down and sees how we act, you can imagine the pain the נשמה has when it sees that, for instance, a child is not acting according to the Torah, and there he sees that the Torah is true! Just like in this world, imagine if someone sees that something is poison, let's say. You know for sure this is poison, and there is somebody else who is trying to take it, and you see and you can't do anything about it, you can't warn him. Or you see how this person is walking, and all he has to do just bend down and pick up a million dollars, but for some reason, you can't scream to he you can't say anything, imagine how you feel! Imagine if that's your own child that's walking there, and you would like to scream, \"Look! There's a million dollars there, pick it up!\" or God forbid, \"Don't walk there, you might fall!\" and you can't say anything, imagine the pain! That's what goes on. It says, it's so that the נשמה looks down, and the נשמה is sad, sees the truth, and looks down and sees that the people down here don't recognize it, and you can imagine how it feels. And for that reason, it says that the greatest pain the נשמה could have is when it sees what it itself, he himself, she herself, did while they were in this world. It says one of the greatest suffering for the נשמה, it goes up, and they replay a movie to this person of everything that he did in this world. Imagine how he feels when he sees everything he did, now he knows the truth clear, clearer than any truth that we know in this world, he sees 100% true what true, what right is and what wrong is, and you look back and you see that I, myself, did this, did that, which I see now that this is not true. Imagine if someone, chas veshalom, became meshuga and acted meshuga, and they made a movie of it, And later on when he becomes normal, if they play back the movie, imagine how he feels. This is what I did? This is how meshuga I was? This is exactly the way the נשמה feels when it looks down. But what says so it says, and again what I'm saying comes from the Torah, I'm not making it up because I couldn't make it up, anybody who makes it up doesn't know what he's talking about because how could he know what to say? But the Torah says that this is the idea. What do we do about this? The idea is that when a נשמה goes up, and the נשמה did things down here it wasn't supposed to do, it has to go through certain forms of purification. And that's the concept of punishment. There is no such thing in the Torah as עונש, as punishment. There's no such thing, because Hashem is only good, and the Torah is only good, and the mitzvot are only good, and there cannot be a result of Torah and mitzvot as a punishment. What is the meaning of a punishment? Purification. When a person is down here, the fact is that the נשמה is in the body, and because of that it does not see the truth, and therefore it's possible for it to do things which are not right to do. What happens? So certain dirt gets attached to the neshama, just like when a garment gets dirty, ס'ווערט שמוציק. What do you do when something gets dirty? You have to wash it. Sometimes you have to wash it with hot water. Sometimes it's possible that a child gets dirty. What does the mother do? She washes the child off. Sometimes it gets so dirty that you have to take hot water and wash the child. And the child screams. Is this chas v'shalom a punishment for the child? Not so. It is a purification, a cleansing. And that's what happens to the neshama too. The neshama goes up, goes through a process of cleansing, and then the neshama reaches its goal, which is תחת כסא הכבוד, under the holy throne, the כסא הכבוד of Hashem. Because we know that all neshamot come from מתחת כסא הכבוד, under the כסא הכבוד. And that's what happens. The neshama comes back after the purification, and that's by the way the idea of saying Kaddish, and then it goes back תחת כסא הכבוד, and then it gets its reward. What is the reward? It sees the truth, and as it says, that the צדיקים יושבים ונהנים מזיו השכינה. What do the people do, the neshamot do in Gan Eden? They sit and have pleasure from the glory of Hashem. And this applies to every single Yid, even though the Gemara says tzaddikim sit and have pleasure from the glory of Hashem, but we know ועמך כולם צדיקים. All the Yidden are tzaddikim. The only difference is some people have to go through first this purification process and then they reach that level, some people don't have to go because they were tzaddikim in this world. But eventually every single neshama reaches that point where it sits and has pleasure from זיו השכינה. We also have to remember that a lot the people down here in this world can help the neshamot there. Because a neshama, after it leaves this world, cannot change anything. Whatever a person does in this world, that's what he takes along. It says in the Gemara also that the same person who went up, his neshama went up, he heard an announcement. He heard an announcement in Gan Eden. The announcement said: אשרי מי שבא לכאן ותלמודו בידו. Good is for the person who came here and his learning came along. If you learn Torah here, you do mitzvot, you take it along. But when you're finished with this world, there is nothing you can do. There's a pasuk that says: במתים חפשי. That for dead people it's free. And the Gemara says it means חפשי מן המצות, they have no mitzvot. And that is the reason why, God forbid, when you go to a levayah, you're not allowed to show your tzitzit, because it's as if you are laughing from him, לועג לרש. Imagine when you have a poor person who doesn't have any food and you show him, \"Look, ha ha ha, here I have some bread.\" You're teasing him. So when we show our tzitzit, we're teasing him, because he doesn't have any mitzvot. So whatever he accomplished in this world is afgetan. That's it. You can't do anything more later. As I quoted before: היום לעשותם ומחר לקבל שכרם. Today is to do. In this world we do. Tomorrow, meaning in the world to come, in Gan Eden, then you get the reward. So whatever the neshamah did, he did. But the people who are left here in this world, they still have the ability of helping out those neshamot who are in this second dimension, who are in this world to come, in Gan Eden. That's the whole idea there are some people who give צדקה לעילוי נשמת for the elevation of the neshamah of this person. Because when a person down here gives tzedakah for the zechut of that neshamah, that helps. There's a statement in the Zohar that says: ברא מזכה אבא. A child, a son can give a zechut, a merit to his father. And this refers to a father who passed away, that the child can do this for his father. That's the whole idea of saying Kaddish, that when a child, a son goes to shul, davent with a minyan, says Kaddish, this brings about an עליית נשמה, this helps the neshamah up there. But it has to be done properly down here, has to be done sincerely, then this helps the neshamah. Not like that famous joke, and it's hardly a subject for jokes, but nevertheless it's good sometimes to throw in a joke. There is a famous joke that once there was this person whose neshamah came up to heaven, and he didn't go to the right place, he had to go through some purification. Then a few days later, two מלאכים come and they pick him up and they say, \"No, we're taking you to Gan Eden, to paradise.\" \"Oh, what happened?\" \"Your son down there gave $25,000 to the yeshiva in zecher of your neshamah, and that brought you up.\" The next day they come to him and they say, \"We're taking you back.\" He said, \"What happened?\" \"The check bounced.\" That's not the type we're talking about. What we're talking about here is when a person actually learns Torah and does mitzvot for the zechut, for a עליה of the neshamah, then this takeh helps out the neshamah. Because the neshamah there sees the truth, and when it sees that down here they're doing things of truth, and there is only one thing which is true, which is Hashem as I said before, and His Torah and mitzvot, everything else is not a true being as I explained before, so when we do true things, and the neshamah there sees the truth, it helps out the neshamah. But if, chas veshalom, the neshamah sees that it's not done that way, then I don't want to say anything, but it could harm the neshamah the way it's up there.

Then there are a few more details that we find in sefarim concerning the life after the life in this world, the second dimension. One of the things it says in Kabbalah is that the neshamah has to go through what we call נהר דינור. נהר דינור really means a river of fire. It says that the neshamah, since it was down here in this world, in the body, and saw the different things of this world, which is עולם השקר, the world of שקרים, of lies, so there has it has to forget, the neshamah has to forget what we call חיזו דהאי עלמא, has to forget the sight of this world. So, just like in this world we have a concept of a mikveh, that you go to the mikveh and that purifies you, there is a mikveh called a mikveh of fire in נהר דינור that the neshamah has to go through, and then it forgets חיזו דהאי עלמא, and all these things of vas tsugeklept that got attached to the neshamah from this world automatically go away, and the neshamah forgets. And for that reason it says that the neshamah cannot really have a feeling of what גשמיות, of what things in this physical world is. This brings to my mind a story, a famous story of the Tzemach Tzedek, I don't want to go It's a long story, I'll just bring out a point. Once when the Tzemach Tzedek came out to give speak דברי תורה to his chasidim, so one of the so they were waiting for a deep maamar. He turned around to his chasidim, and he said, \"Would you rather hear a maamar, דברי תורה, or hear a story?\" They understood that if the רבי ever mentions a story, gives them an alternative of hearing a story, probably there's something he wants to say. So, they all said, \"We want to hear a story.\" He said, \"I'll tell you a story.\" And the story was that there was a person who rented an inn by a friend, and after a while didn't have any money to pay, and his friend was going to throw him out, and he didn't have any other means of livelihood, no parnasah. But he said, \"I can't help it. Pay me.\" He went away to his רבי, and he told him. The רבי called the other person, and he said, \"Leave him.\" He left him for another year, but he didn't pay again. He was going to throw him out again. He called him back again, and then again he didn't pay. A few times it happened, and every time the רבי asked him to leave him stay there. The end was, after a few times he didn't pay, he says, \"רבי, I can't listen to you this time. Finished.\" Why? Because I let him once, twice, three times, how much, וויפיל א שיעור? And he didn't let him stay there. He threw him out. And that person didn't have any parnasah, and what happened the end? That person passed away because he didn't have any food, and he had a lot of tzarot and עגמת נפש, and everything, he passed away. When his neshamah came up there, they started mishpatendik, judging this person. Look, because of you, this person passed away, and his family didn't have any parnasah, and the verdict in the בית דין של מעלה, in the heavenly court, was guilty. So, one malach came, and he said that, \"What does the בית דין של מעלה know about the נסיון of money? When it comes to a test in this world of money, of losing money, you have no idea what it means money in this world. How can you judge this person? His test was so great, so strong, that the fact that he didn't withstand that is not enough to make him guilty.\" So they said, \"Oh, you're right. Let's paskenen a דין, let's ask a person, a neshamah who lived in this world.\" So, they came to the Beit Yosef, the one that wrote the Shulchan Aruch, and they asked him the דין. He looked into it, and he also paskant guilty. So another malach said, \"No, he is already 400 years away from this world, he forgot already. He doesn't know what it means.\" So, then they said, \"Let's ask somebody who just passed away.\" And there was I think the Ruzhiner had just passed away, this is what the Tzemach Tzedek is telling, and the בית דין של מעלה said to him, \"What do you pasken in this din?\" And he looked into it, and he said, \"Guilty.\" But then again a מלאך came and he said, The moment he left this world, and he went through this נהר דינור, he forgot what the תאוות, the the the things, the desires of this world are. He doesn't have that feeling. How can he pasken? And the בית דין של מעלה, the heavenly court, said he's right. What we have to do is we have to ask a Rav who's still alive in this world. That's what the Tzemach Tzedek was telling, and the Tzemach Tzedek turned around to them and he said, \"Nu, what do you say?\" And the chasidim understood that he was saying that they ask him. And before they had a chance to answer, he said, \"I think innocent! And let's all say innocent, innocent, innocent!\" And they all, the whole crowd said innocent, and that was that. Why I'm bringing in this story is trying to show the fact is that a neshama when it leaves this world, the neshama forgets about all the different things of this olam hazeh. And therefore it doesn't understand, how is it possible for a person to do an aveirah? Why do we do חס ושלום עבירות? Because of our yetzer hara, of our תאוות. But this person the neshama doesn't understand it. And therefore when the neshama comes looks down, and sees the way we act, it really hopes that we act the proper way. And the way we takeh act, that helps the neshama the way it's up there. So, getting back to the beginning, that we have discussed this concept of death which is another dimension, because the truth is there there is another dimension of life after the person finishes with this world. A much better life, a life of truth, without any צרות, without any problems, a spiritual life, with one problem. Whatever we did in this world, that's what we take along. So, on one hand, the life on this world is more precious, because here we still can accomplish. Even though we say that the neshamot there learn Torah, but it says in the Midrash, based on the pasuk in Shir Hashirim: חברים מקשיבים לקולך. When we sit and learn Torah, the malachim, the angels come down to listen, and the neshamot who used to be in this world come down. We don't know, while we're sitting here and learning and I'm speaking words of Torah, this room is full of neshamot that used to be in this world, who cannot learn Torah up there and they want to listen, they come down here. So, it really all depends on us. We have the koach in this. And therefore, we always ask Hashem and we pray to Him: give us אריכות ימים, long life, because even though we're trying to explain that the life in the world to come is so great and so special, and so good, but nevertheless, to accomplish more, we could accomplish in this world. And therefore, all I could say is, that we ask and pray to Hashem He should give every single one of us אריכות ימים ושנים טובות, long and healthy life, biz hundert un tsvantsik till ביאת משיח, till Mashiach will come במהרה בימינו ממש. If someone had requested in the beginning that anybody who wants maybe to ask a question or two, so I would stay for a few moments. Yes.

Eventually. It takes longer. He has to go through a stronger purification, but eventually every neshama will come to that point. Because the neshama is eternal. A neshama can't stop, it can't take it get destroyed because it's part of Hashem. Oh, that's a very important point. That as long as a person is in this world, if you do teshuvah, then you wipe off the dirt that got stuck to the neshama. And that's why as long as a person is alive you do teshuvah. Afterwards, it's too late. Then you have to go through this horrible purification. We down here have to work for the neshama, and many things have to happen. But as long as a person is in this world, a person does teshuvah, even one moment, his neshama goes to the highest מדרגות. The Gemara tells us a story of this great person who was a great בעל עבירה, he did the worst aveirot in the world. His name was Elazar ben Dordaya, that was his name. But for some reason at one point he did teshuvah, and it bothered him so much why he sinned so much, he started crying, and he cried so much and he died. So, he did teshuvah a short while after before he died. He didn't even manage to live much longer. So the Gemara says: בכה רבי ואמר, when Rabbi, the famous Rabbi that Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi, the one that made the Mishnayot, so he when he heard this, he cried and he said, \"יש קונה עולמו בשעה אחת. You could acquire Olam Haba, you could acquire this world to come, go directly to גן עדן בשעה אחת in a short while, because he did teshuvah.\" But I heard an interesting pshat, I'll tell you. Someone once asked one of the great tzadikim: why did Rabbi cry when he said that? He should have been laughing when he said, \"Look! In one moment you could acquire Olam Haba!\" It says he cried and he said that. So he said: you know why? What he said was: look what we could do, how come no one does it? That's why he cried. But the fact is we could acquire Olam Haba if we do teshuvah. Therefore, it says that a person כל ימיו בתשובה, he always has to do teshuvah. Because it says שוב יום אחד לפני מיתתך, a person should do teshuvah a day before he dies. So the Gemara asks, how do you know when you're going to die? So it's true, and therefore you should always do teshuvah. But the fact is that if a person does teshuvah before he dies, then his neshama goes straight into Gan Eden, if it's a proper teshuvah. Yes? The nefesh, meaning the neshama. No, the nefesh lives on, but not the same. The nefesh, after all, the life that a the physical life of a person is still a part of the creation. Hashem created it. And that The neshamah is part of Him. And that lives on forever. Right. But the nefesh could be without the guf, right? The guf could not live without the nefesh. Hashem created the guf, and He said that the way the guf will be alive is because of the nefesh. There is a possibility for the guf to exist without the nefesh. No, one second, the guf could exist without the nefesh, not to be alive. When a person dies, right, but at the at Okay, so it changes into different right, but the nefesh remains the way it is, a nefesh, right. But the guf Yes, if that Don't give it the name soul. We learn in Torah, so we give it the name nefesh. If you don't give it the name soul, that's why I try to use the word life, the life of the person, the life force, call it the life force. But that life force is a force that's there which is a separate entity and was put into the person other than the body. And that is spiritual, not spiritual godly, but spiritual. The body could exist without that life force. Eventually, but there for a while it could. Now, how does it exist then? Obviously, there was this life force that left it. That's a good point. As far What's the segulah for a long life? So the pasuk says, honoring your father and your mother, then it says person will live long, and there's another mitzvah, שילוח הקן, sending away the mother of the bird, the nest, so then that gives long life. But there are other mitzvot. It says in the גמרא, כל המניח תפילין מאריך ימים. Anybody who puts on tefillin will live long. There are other mitzvot which are a segulah for long life. Tzedakah, צדקה תציל ממות. Tzedakah saves from death. But we have to remember both sides. Life in this world is important and that's where we can accomplish. On the other hand, the life that happens later is also a life, and not only also, but a more true life. Yes? Well, let me explain that. It's not a mitzvah to visit a cemetery. There's no such mitzvah. No, no, I'll explain it. You call it a mitzvah. When we daven to Hashem and we ask Him for whatever we need, so the place plays an important role. Why is it important to daven in shul? For two reasons. First of all, you daven with a minyan. So if you daven with the whole community, then Hashem accept accepts your pray the prayer much better. Another thing, the shul is a holy place. Being that it's a holy place, the prayers are accepted faster. A cemetery is a holy place. Why? Being that there the people were buried, and that's where the neshamot, so to speak, left, that's where you put the people who did a lot of mitzvot, so the the cemetery is a holier place, and God will accept our prayers faster while we're there. So we don't go to visit them to do them a favor. We don't do them any favor. We do ourselves the favor. We go to a special, holy place to for Hashem to accept our prayers. Yes? Exactly it, because the Ohel, which is the grave the the of the previous Rebbe, that's a holy place. Because the tzaddik was buried there, and by a tzaddik, I don't want to go into that subject, even the body became holy because with his body he did all the mitzvot. So therefore, that is a holy place. So he says he's going to pray for you where? In the holiest place of the whole of the whole state, of the whole city, the whole world maybe. That's what he means. That's what the Rebbe always does that. When he asks for a berachah, he says that I'm going to pray for you at the ohel, at the grave of the previous Rebbe. That's a very holy place. Our custom is that when we go to the ohel, we take off our shoes. When we walk into that room, we walk without our shoes. Why? It's all based on the pasuk. When משה רבינו was with the sheep of יתרו, and he came across the burning bush, what was the first thing Hashem said to him? That bush was on on הר סיני. That was the mountain on which God later gave the Torah. השם said to him של נעליך מעל רגליך, take the shoes off your feet כי המקום אשר אתה עומד עליו אדמת קדש הוא, because the place you're standing on is holy. From there we see if you stand on a holy place, take off the shoes. So when we go there, being that it's a holy place, we take off our shoes. We see that the Kohanim when they go up the duchan to say נשיאת כפים on Yom Tov, they take off their shoes, for a different reason, but also it's connected to this. A holy place you have to be holy, and you shouldn't wear shoes. It says when the Jews would walk on the הר הבית they had to take off their shoes. But the idea is that that is a holy place, and that's why he says, \"I'll pray for you at this holy place.\" Yes? Can you explain before death where the neshamah is in עולם הבא? Because in death the neshamah goes to עולם הבא, the neshamah sees the truth of our of עולם הזה, of our... Right, right, but we know we're told that the neshamah does know what the children are doing and Well, the truth is not always. Many times there are different, many, but many times it knows. The neshamah knows and looks down and can't do anything. Sometimes, sometimes you find stories that they were given permission to come down and to do things, to go to, to come to a dream, or to do other things that will bring them back. And you never know. Sometimes you see a person, let me say, that the father, great grandfather were not religious at all, and all of a sudden you see the great grandson became religious. You can never know what happened. It is the great grandfather up there that's looking down and praying to Hashem that, \"Look, make sure that my great grandson will turn back to you,\" and that's what happened. That's why sometimes you don't even know why. Sometimes you see why. Someone worked on this person. Sometimes it just from nowhere, and it just turns around. Like I'll tell you, I saw myself when I was in Russia six years ago and another time later, the baal teshuvah movement that was there was unbelievable, and I couldn't understand why. Here in America, or in Israel, or in England, you know how the baal teshuvah movement started. In the newspapers you write about Yiddishkeit, you meet people in the street, you talk about it in the open. In Russia you can't talk about it in the open, everything is hidden, it's dangerous to be frum, and all of a sudden there was a revival of Yiddishkeit. It was their neshamah or the neshamah of their great grandparents that died על קידוש השם in Russia, that's begging Hashem, \"Please do us a favor that our great grandchildren should turn back,\" and that's what happened. Does that apply to geirim, that they have the same... That's true. With geirim also, with converts, it says the same. It says that really they come from Jews. There's an expression by אידן, אַ ייד שמדט זיך נישט און אַ גוי איז זיך נישט מגייר. When a goy is mitgayer, when a goy converts, it's really because he has some Jewish blood, or there is a neshamah that's connected to this person, and it comes down, that is true. Yes? I'd like to know a real, precise definition of the word neshamah, soul, if you could define, and I'd like to know if it's true about the belief that the soul comes back to earth in the body of a child and has another life? Well, the first question is easier to answer than the second. Not The truth is I don't know another word for it, but really what a neshamah is, is a Godly spark that's within the person. The neshamah is the holy spark, a part of God, that's within the person. Another word for it, I really don't know, I'm sure people who speak English better than me, I My English is very forced, so I really don't know another word. But that's really what it is, it's part of God which God put into every single Jew. Now the second question, this touches the concept of gilgulim, which is reincarnation. I don't want to get into that subject, but according to Torah, especially the way it's explained in Kabbalah, there is a concept of reincarnation. Let's not confuse it with a reincarnation that the goyim have, and they have they look at it differently. What we know is that many times, most of the times, the neshamah comes back to this world, and it says when a neshamah a person is in this world and there are still things that he doesn't didn't accomplish, so what Hashem does, in that world you can't accomplish, come back to this world and you're born again, and you live again, and you accomplish. God forbid if a person doesn't accomplish the second time, then you have to come down a third time. Sometimes it says that there is a concept of reincarnation as a punishment, and then it doesn't come down into another body of a human being, sometimes it can come down in other things, and that is a form of punishment for the neshamah, but that's a different story altogether. But in another person, it says as a matter of fact that most of the neshamot now were once in this world already. It says that the neshamot of the generation before Mashiach, which we are, there is no question about it, we are the generation right before Mashiach, are the same neshamot as those Jews who were in the desert that died during the forty years in the מדבר. There were people, great tzaddikim, who said that they remember their previous gilgul. There were tzaddikim, I'll give you an example. There was this great tzaddik known as the Apter Rav. He wrote a sefer called Ohev Yisrael, great tzaddik. He said he was in this world three times. That was his third time. Once he says he was from Yaakov Avinu, Jacob's sheep, one of the sheep. And he says Jacob once hit him with a with a whip, and he showed on his back a sign of a whip, that it's still from then. And then he said that the time before, another time, he was a Kohen Gadol, he was a high priest in the Beit Hamikdash. And therefore, sometimes on Yom Kippur when he used to daven for the amud, and we say on Yom Kippur the avodah, we repeat