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— thirteen aspects. I say: the first of them is the account of Isaac (peace be upon him).
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I see that he offered himself for slaughter and sacrifice in order to obey his Lord. Had he believed that reward is only in this world, what could he have hoped to receive as compensation after his death?
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Indeed, the Wise One would not even have laid that obligation upon him, since there would be no reward for it.
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I find that Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (peace be upon them) gave themselves over to the fire rather than worship an idol instead of their Lord.
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Had they believed that reward is only in this world, what would have remained for them after being consumed by fire that they could hope for and desire?
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I find that Daniel (peace be upon him) gave himself over to the lions for the sake of prayer to his Lord. Had he believed that reward is only in this world, what would have remained for him after the lions consumed him?
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These things — may God have mercy on you — prove that the prophets (peace be upon them) all agree that reward is not in this world, but in the abode that comes after.
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If someone objects: we find explicit mention in the Torah of reward only in the present world —
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as written in the portion אִם בְּחֻקֹּתַי ["If you walk in My statutes"] and in the section וְהָיָה אִם שָׁמֹעַ תִּשְׁמַע ["If you hearken diligently"] —
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we reply: the Wise One did not leave the Torah empty of mention of reward and punishment in the World to Come — as we shall explain —
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but its explicit expression focused on worldly good fortune and misfortune alone for two reasons:
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First: since the reward of the World to Come is something reason can infer — as we explained — the Torah was brief in elaborating it,
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just as it was brief regarding וַיְצַו ה' אֱלֹהִים עַל הָאָדָם לֵאמֹר ["the Lord God commanded the man, saying"] etc., without spelling out 'do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal' —
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since reason already points to all these; it made explicit only וּמֵעֵץ הַדַּעַת טוֹב וָרָע ["and from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil"]
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["you shall not eat"] — because reason does not point to this on its own.
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Likewise it made explicit the worldly reward, because reason does not point to that on its own, while it abbreviated the explanation of the final reward, relying on reason's capacity to infer it.
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Second: it is the nature of prophecy to expand upon the immediate events that people need, and to be brief about distant events,
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so since the most pressing need of the people at the time the Torah was written for them was to know the condition of the Land of Canaan, the Torah expanded that explanation for them,
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including the consequences of their obedience and transgression therein, while it alluded to the distant future with brief words, without extensive elaboration.
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The most compelling argument for this: we find that Moses our Teacher (peace be upon him) — the greatest of the obedient and the righteous — received nothing of the great worldly rewards,
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such as וְנָתַתִּי גִשְׁמֵיכֶם בְּעִתָּם ["I shall give your rains in their season"], הִשִּׂיג לָכֶם דַּיִשׁ ["the threshing shall reach"], וְנָתַתִּי שָׁלוֹם ["I shall give peace"], וַאֲכַלְתֶּם יָשָׁן נוֹשָׁן ["you shall eat of the old stored provision"] — since he did not enter the Land.
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Had the righteous been entitled only to what is in אִם בְּחֻקֹּתַי ["If you walk in My statutes"], it would have been incumbent that Moses our Teacher receive the most of it.
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Yet this principle indicates that the greatest reward is in the World to Come, and that these worldly matters are only signs and tokens.
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Among these arguments too: what Elijah (peace be upon him) demonstrated — he prayed to his Lord and blessed the flour and oil for another person through his prayer, while he himself sought a piece of bread and could not obtain it.
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And Elisha (peace be upon him) — at his death, God revived through him the man who was cast into his grave,
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yet had reward been only in this world, one who had not himself received anything of it could not have brought another to any portion of it.
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Among these arguments: what we are told about the people of Sodom — when they transgressed, God turned against their city and rained upon it fire and brimstone.
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Had punishment existed only in this world, every transgressor would receive something like that in proportion to his crimes — yet we find nothing of the sort.
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Another argument: the Children of Israel, when they worshipped other gods, had a nation set over them that punished them, taking them captive and exiling them.
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Yet we observe today many nations who worship other gods and are neither taken captive nor exiled — had punishment been only in this world, they would have received the same.
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Among these arguments too: justice commanded the killing of the children of Midian and the cutting off of the children of the Generation of the Flood, and we always observe pain being inflicted upon children —
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so it is necessary that after death there be a state by which they arrive at compensation for what they suffered, as we explained.
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Chapter 3: Having mentioned these six arguments, it is fitting to follow them with the seven further scriptural ones.
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I say: there are seven principal categories, each with a hint and allusion in the Torah and fuller explanation in the other prophetic books.
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The first category: the designation of what wisdom and the Law earn the human being as 'life,' as in אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשֶׂה אֹתָם הָאָדָם וָחַי בָּהֶם ["which the person shall do and live by them"] —
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and the designation of what the fool incurs through ignorance as 'death,' as in הַנֶּפֶשׁ הַחֹטֵאת הִיא תָמוּת ["the soul that sins shall die"], כִּי מֹצְאִי מָצָא חַיִּים ["for my finder finds life"], and אֹרַח חַיִּים לְמַעְלָה לַמַּשְׂכִּיל ["the path of life is upward for the wise"].