"The Way of G-d"
Part 2: “Divine Providence”, Chapter 2: “Mankind in this world”
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We spoke before of certain wrongful people who had nonetheless done some
good in their lives which they were rewarded for in the here and now. That
phenomenon proved to underscore the fact that nothing good goes un-rewarded,
and that G-d's ways are always just. But let's recall, though, that these
mainly-wrongful people don't inherit a place in The World to Come. The reward
they experience in life ends with life.
There are, though, essentially good people who also enjoy a great deal of
reward in life. But they pay a heavy price. Because the merit they'd have
accrued from their goodness would play itself out here rather than in The
World to Come, much like the mainly wrongful people above. That seems to
contradict G-d's justice. We'll see, however, that G-d's justice always
holds sway.
Nonetheless we find there to be many people who reap the reward for their
good deeds in their lifetimes. And yet some of them go on to enjoy The World
to Come (i.e., essentially good people), while others don't (i.e.,
essentially bad people). So what sets them apart?
It's this. While the mostly-wrongful people are indeed rewarded for their few
good deeds here in the world, they never ever attain a place in The World to
Come, as we said. Whereas the essentially good people who reap their reward
here in the world do earn a place The World to Come-- but only barely so.
For their accommodations would be minimal, since they'd been rewarded in this
world as well. In fact, some essentially good people could very well have
attained rather lofty positions in The World to Come had they not been
rewarded in life. And that's why many righteous people shun good fortune
while in this world.
This too bears witness to G-d's (sometimes inexplicable) justice. For while
everything good we do is indeed rewarded, certain things merit eternal reward
while others only merit temporal reward (some of which can be rather
luxurious, and others of which more modest, of course, the way our eternal
rewards vary). It's just that He alone knows what merits what, and to what
degree.
This series is dedicated to the memory of Yitzchak Hehrsh ben Daniel,
and Sarah Rivka bas Yaakov Dovid.
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