Halakhah sa Isaias 64:3: Shulchan Shel Arba & Mishneh Torah, Repentance

And know indeed that the status of the souls in the world of souls comes right as one dies, while the world to come is after the resurrection. And it is the hope of all hopes, it cannot be compared or likened to anything in this world, nor pictured in the mind, because its image cannot be comprehended in the heart of “anyone artistically skillful,”⁸⁷“Kol hakham lev,” any “artistic genius.” R. Bahya uses an expression from Ex 31:3-5 that describes the great architect and builders of the mishkan, Bezalel and his assistants: “I have filled him [Bezalel] with a divine spirit of skill [hakhmah]…to make designs…and work in every kind of craft. Moreover I have assigned to him Oholiab…and I have granted skill [hakhmah] to all who are skillful [kol hakham lev]…”surpassing their ability to picture its essence and quality – what it is like and how the souls take delight in it. The reason for this is because of our being sunken in the world of thick and coarse bodies, which is totally thickness and coarseness, while the upper world is totally elevation, refinement, and purity. Indeed, the two are opposites; it’s impossible to think of what we are diametrically opposed to. Just as for fish, because they exist in the element of water, and need it to exist and live, it would be impossible for them to turn to the element of fire because it is its opposite, so these two worlds are opposites, and “every man is proved dull, without knowledge”⁸⁸Jer 10:14. of the quality of the world to come while in this world, and even the wisest of the wise are fools about this. And you already knew that our rabbis z”l said that even the prophets didn’t prophesy about it due the fact that it was hidden for the most part, which is what they said in Sanhedrin:⁸⁹B. Sanhedrin 99a. “All the prophets prophesied all the good things with regard to the days of Messiah; but as for the world to come ‘No eye has seen, O God, but You.'” However, we know in general through what we can infer through reason and from the Torah “which makes wise the simple”⁹⁰Ps 19:8. that just as the body enjoys and takes delight [mitaden] in a pleasant aromatic meal according to the body’s standards of pleasure, so the soul will enjoy and take delight in this upper world. However, its way of taking delight there is not measured like bodily things, which have measures and dimensions, but the upper beings have no measure and dimension, because their status is great, beyond conception, and their way of taking delight deeper than any measure. And even though the power of the body is weak and unable to picture in the heart the existence of the upper beings and their delight that is without measure, the power of the upper beings and their perfection is not diminished by lesser beings, composed of matter, who are unable to conceive of them, just as the human wisdom and virtue is not diminished by a fool or beast who cannot imagine or conceive of it.

How David longed and craved for the life in the World to Come! even as it is said: "If I had not believed to look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living" (Ibid. 27.13). We were long since informed by the ancient sages that it is not within the power of man to attain clearly the good of the World to Come, nor to know its grandeur beauty and quantity, save only the Holy One, blessed is He! and that all the good the prophets did prophesy for Israel are none else save corporeal matters, of which Israel will enjoy during the Messianic era, when government will be restored to Israel; but as the good in the life of the World to Come has neither estimate nor comparison, the prophets did not compare it to aught so as to not lessen it by comparison. This is what Isaiah said: "Neither hath an eye seen a God besides Thee, Who worketh for him that waiteth for Him" (Is. 64.3), as if saying: "The good which the eye of a prophet had not seen, and none save God saw it, did God make for man who waits for Him. The sages declared: "All of the prophets combined prophesied not save concerning the Messianic era, but the World to Come no eye saw, O God, besides Thee".⁸Shabbat, 63a; Sanhedrin, 99b; Abodah Zarah, 65a. C. G.