What matters when physical pleasure is gone, but you are still you?

What matters when physical pleasure is gone, but you are still you?

Maimonides [the Rambam] describes the World to Come as fully spiritual.

It comes after the Messianic era, which may last from 1 day to 200+ years, and the spiritual stage of the World to Come takes place in the world of souls. More details about the Messianic era are at the end.

In the world of souls, you remain the same personality, feeling emotions and relationship, but without physical pleasure or physical suffering; movement happens through thought rather than through a physical body.

“There is even more diversity in the world of souls than in our physical world.” — Rebbe Rashab

If physical pleasure is gone but personality, emotion, and relationship remain, it raises a bigger question: what is life ultimately about?

Life is about intimacy with the Creator.

Intimacy means two different beings remain different while knowing each other and freely choosing relationship.

The Creator does not need us because something is missing in Him. He freely chose that He wants a relationship with us, and that relationship can matter to Him without completing something He lacks.

And we get to choose whether He matters to us.

Kingship describes the kind of relationship a finite human being can have with the Infinite Creator because there is an endless distance between finite and Infinite.

We cannot become the same as Him or fully understand Him, but kingship makes relationship possible across that distance: the King remains beyond the person, while the person can still live before Him, respond to His desires, and freely choose relationship.

The Creator is the Source of our life and existence, so accepting His Kingship means choosing to live with awareness of the One our existence depends on instead of living as though we are our own source.

A relationship with a King begins with awe: wonder at His greatness, humility because we are limited and dependent, and healthy fear because our choices matter.

When we trust that the King is good, that awe can awaken love.

That means every moment can become part of a conversation with Him through what you notice, feel, choose, appreciate, ask for, and give. 🔴

“We can’t imagine the Creator’s humility.” — Rabbi Shlomo Yehuda Be’eri

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In the world of souls, every soul thirsts to know the Creator more.

Accurate interpretations of Torah [Hebrew Bible] allow the soul to understand the Creator more deeply, feel deeper spiritual emotions, and build deeper relationships with other personalities.

Wisdom and noticing the wonder of the universe deepen awe by strengthening the felt awareness:

“The Creator is here, choosing to give existence to every moment.”

Expressing appreciation for the gifts you notice deepens both awe and love because you notice not only His greatness, but His goodness toward you.

Love contains joy because some of His goodness and closeness are already revealed, and sadness because His goodness can always be more revealed.

That sadness becomes the desire for greater closeness and to channel more goodness toward yourself and others.

Feelings are experienced more than 1,000 times stronger in the world of souls, so we cannot imagine the emotional pleasure or pain.

Attaching a physical image to the Creator also limits what you can feel, because reducing the Infinite Creator to a human-like form weakens the wonder, awe, and love that come from recognizing that He is beyond every form and description. 🔴

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So what does this mean once a person enters the world of souls?

The righteous soul experiences the goodness it became ready to receive by learning how to face shame and live with responsibility in the physical world.

That means learning to live morally instead of living through selfishness, people-pleasing, avoiding difficult conversations, or numbing feelings through overeating.

The soul is not haunted by regret because during physical life it practiced honesty, responsibility, care, and repair.

It also trusts itself more because it has evidence from a lifetime of making those choices and learning how to practice relationship without hiding. 🔴

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A soul that practiced denial, hate, avoidance of conversations, people pleasing, or self-hatred throughout physical life can still experience awe, joy, and love in the world of souls.

But ongoing guilt, shame, and self-hatred can reduce spiritual pleasure like joy and wonder, and they can also create loneliness because the soul may struggle to feel safe enough for closeness, honesty, and relationship.

The deepest repair can only happen when the soul returns to the physical world.

Greater awareness does not automatically give a soul the emotional skills needed to handle what it now understands.

It may see more clearly where it caused harm, where it hid, or where fear controlled its choices, but without enough self-compassion, responsibility, and trust, that awareness can become guilt, shame, distance, and loneliness instead of deeper closeness. 🔴

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According to the Arizal and Chassidus, the World to Come is ultimately fulfilled in the physical world through resurrection of the dead for all nations, when the body itself becomes a vessel for G-dliness [healthy giving].

Based on the Talmud, the soul-only stage lasts around 1,000–2,000 years.

Resurrection does not begin at the same time for everyone.

The righteous rise first, while those who lived more selfishly need more time in the world of souls to improve their personality, work through guilt and shame, and become more ready for healthy relationship.

One way to understand the timeline is that the righteous return after around 1,000 years, while everyone else returns over the following 1,000 years.

Many of Maimonides’ teachings were originally published in Judeo-Arabic. 🔴

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Related guide: The Messianic era

The Messianic era is an era of world peace whose beginning depends on the Jewish people fully returning to relationship with the Creator: learning to trust that He is good, living with awe, and accepting the leadership and teachings of the “Moses” He sends.

Building that trust also requires some self-trust, because a person has to believe they can make mistakes, repair, and begin again without losing the relationship.

The leader also has to become beloved by the Jewish people, because healthy leadership cannot be built only through fear or authority.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe left more than 70,000 published pages of teachings to guide the Jewish people toward a deeper relationship with the Creator and help bring the Messianic era sooner.

A central part of that work is to fully return to relationship with Him, demand more revealed goodness, and develop the mindset:

“I am here to be a channel for goodness toward myself and others.” 🔴

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Even if a soul has to wait a very long time before returning to physical life, its existence is not a punishment.

It can still know the Creator, experience love, awe, joy, and relationship, and grow in understanding.

Some souls may wait another 1,000 or even 2,000 years for the World to Come in the physical world. But if we trust that the Creator is good, we can trust that existence is still worth the wait for that deeper physical relationship with Him [it means believing the era in 2000 years will be wonderful for everyone, Rav Sadia Gaon says that even animals that suffered will return.

Regret may limit some of the soul’s joy for a period of time. It is not the purpose of its existence.

I believe Rabbi Adin Even-Yisrael [Steinsaltz] is the greatest Torah scholar that lived in the 21st century, he left behind a commentary on all major parts of Torah [hebrew bible], including on Maimonides, Talmud, a Tanya commentary of 2000+ pages, check out his work.

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The Talmud says that if the Messiah is among those who have passed away, he would be someone as beloved as Daniel.

The Messiah is also the Nasi HaDor, the leader who continues the role of Moses in his generation, guiding people through his teachings toward belief in the Creator and trust that He is good.

This suggests that a Nasi HaDor [leader of the generation] can continue to hold that role even after passing away, when his mission and teachings continue to be accepted and guide the generation.

One of the simple missions the Lubavitcher Rebbe gave was:
“If you know Alef, teach Alef.”

You do not have to know everything before helping someone else learn. If you understand one Torah idea, ask someone if they want to hear it and share what you know.

Another mission: “We must recount and share with others the nearness of G-d that we experience” 🔴
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Related guides:

Creation is an expression of the Creator’s love for intimacy, a love so great that we cannot fully imagine it.

How does suffering help us feel the Creator chose humanity for relationship: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AZbxLwouB/

Maimonides explains the 13 most emotionally healthy beliefs for the nervous system: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DDNPQTp49/

We have 7 types of thoughts: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1E75MNancg/

Every world view has mysteries, Jewish beliefs are the most reasonable: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14xk1zdkANX/

Misguided awe and extreme people pleasing are both like idol worship: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ESXYMTCgZ/

Humans become co-partners in creation through learning and practicing emotional skills: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1bQVv4h9Yu/

Emotional numbness stops you from feeling awe: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ByrZEPZQH/

Why does darkness [selfish desire] have to be so strong? https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1E5svjSSn4/