As our sages said (Avot, Chapter 4, 22), “One hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is better than the whole of the life in the next world, and one hour of contentment in the next world is better than all the life of this world” (Rabash, “The Measure of Practicing Mitzvot [Commandments]”).

There seems to be a contradiction in this phrase. So what is better? This world or the future world? What does a “beautiful hour” mean?

Beauty is Hochma, wisdom. An “hour” is defined as a connection. If I establish a connection with the Creator in our world, then my raising of MAN, my prayer, constitutes all that I have it is my bestowal to the Creator. Thus, the Kli (vessel) that I am building now is the main thing. The upper light will come and be felt only to the extent of the Kli’s equivalence. But in the future world, the reception of the light is the attainment of the holy names. This is our goal. There is nothing more beautiful than this.

Firstly, it follows that at one moment I am in the place of the created being, and at another, on the degree of the Creator. Second, we know that our world and the future world are two states of the same degree. Our world is the present state; the future world is the state that follows in the next moment.

Thus, this can be explained either as the raising of MAN and the reception of the light with the intention to bestow, or as two states: a lower and a higher degree, where the lower degree, by working and correcting itself, merits to draw the light through all the higher degrees.
[354542]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/23/26, Rabash, “The Measure of Practicing Mitzvot [Commandments]”

Related Material:
Commandments Before and After the Machsom
Expand the Point In the Heart
A Commandment Is a Correction of the Desire

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work | Add Comment →