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Chapter 5. I begin first by defining the nature of reward and punishment — of which I mentioned something above — and add here a fuller account:
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Reward and punishment are two subtle qualities that our Lord (mighty and exalted) creates at the time of recompense,
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and from which each servant receives according to what he deserves — both of them originating from a single source,
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which resembles the properties of fire: burning and illuminating. It gives light to the righteous and not to the wicked, and burns the wicked
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and not the righteous — and Scripture is explicit on this: כִּי הִנֵּה הַיּוֹם בָּא בֹּעֵר כַּתַּנּוּר וְהָיוּ כָל זֵדִים וְכָל עֹשֵׂה רִשְׁעָה קַשׁ וְלִהַט אֹתָם הַיּוֹם הַבָּא אָמַר ה' צְבָאוֹת אֲשֶׁר לֹא יַעֲזֹב לָהֶם שֹׁרֶשׁ וְעָנָף ["For behold the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the coming day will set them ablaze — says the Lord of Hosts — leaving them neither root nor branch"],
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וְזָרְחָה לָכֶם יִרְאֵי שְׁמִי שֶׁמֶשׁ צְדָקָה וּמַרְפֵּא בִכְנָפֶיהָ ["But for you who fear My Name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; you will go forth and frolic like calves from the stall, and you will trample the wicked who will be ashes under the soles of your feet"].
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How apt the simile of the sun's actions is, since daytime heat comes from it and brilliant light comes from it — his saying "a burning day" and his saying "the sun of righteousness" refer to the same thing.
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Note that the language refers to the sun by the word "day" — as in הֵם עַם יְבוּסִי וְהַיּוֹם רַד מְאֹד ["these are the Jebusites, and the day has declined greatly"] and הִנֵּה רָפָה הַיּוֹם לַעֲרֹב ["behold, the day fades toward evening"].
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The Creator (mighty and exalted) creates this source resembling the sun — yet there is a difference between them:
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the sun's heat and light are intermingled and cannot be separated from each other, whereas with this source the Creator (glorious is His glory) specifically concentrates its light for the righteous and collects its heat for the wicked —
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either by a specific property exclusive to each, or by an accident that shields the righteous from the heat and veils the wicked from the light — and the second view is closer to the truth.
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We have already seen Him do something analogous in Egypt: He apportioned light to the believers and darkness to the disbelievers by means of an accidental property at His command.
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Having established this principle, I say: that is why Scripture calls the reward of the righteous "light" and all punishment of the wicked "fire."
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Among the first scriptural proofs for reward: כִּי עִמְּךָ מְקוֹר חַיִּים בְּאוֹרְךָ נִרְאֶה אוֹר ["For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light"], and אוֹר זָרוּעַ לַצַּדִּיק וּלְיִשְׁרֵי לֵב שִׂמְחָה ["Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart"],
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and אוֹר צַדִּיקִים יִשְׂמָח וְנֵר רְשָׁעִים יִדְעָךְ ["The light of the righteous rejoices, and the lamp of the wicked goes out"], and לְהָשִׁיב נַפְשׁוֹ מִנִּי שַׁחַת לֵאוֹר בְּאוֹר הַחַיִּים ["to bring back his soul from the Pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living"] — and so on throughout this genre.
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And for punishment: וְהָיָה הֶחָסֹן לִנְעֹרֶת וּפֹעֲלוֹ לְנִיצוֹץ וּבָעֲרוּ שְׁנֵיהֶם יַחְדָּו וְאֵין מְכַבֶּה ["The strong one will become tinder and his work a spark; both will burn together, with none to quench them"], and תַּהֲרוּ חַשַּׁשׁ תֵּלְדוּ קַשׁ רוּחֲכֶם אֵשׁ תֹּאכַלְכֶם ["You conceived chaff, you bring forth stubble; your breath is fire that will consume you"],
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and אַף אֵשׁ צָרַי תֹּאכְלֵם ["Indeed, fire will devour my adversaries"], and כִּי עָרוּךְ מֵאֶתְמוּל תָּפְתֶּה גַּם הוּא לַמֶּלֶךְ הוּכָן הֶעְמִיק הִרְחִיב מְדֻרָתָהּ אֵשׁ וְעֵצִים הַרְבֵּה נִשְׁמַת ה' כְּנַחַל גָּפְרִית בֹּעֲרָה בָּהּ ["For Topheth has long been ready, prepared for the king — deep and wide its fire-pile, with much wood; the breath of the Lord burns in it like a stream of sulfur"].
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And כִּי עֲדַת חָנֵף גַּלְמוּד וְאֵשׁ אָכְלָה אָהֳלֵי שֹׁחַד ["the company of the godless is desolate, and fire consumes the tents of corruption"], and אִם לֹא נִכְחַד קִימָנוּ וְיִתְרָם אֲכָלָה אֵשׁ ["Were our clan not destroyed, would fire consume what remained of them?"], and כָּל חֹשֶׁךְ טָמוּן לִצְפֻנָיו תֹּאכְלֵהוּ אֵשׁ לֹא נֻפָּח ["All darkness is stored up for his future; fire not blown by man will consume him"],
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and יַמְטֵר עַל רְשָׁעִים פַּחִים אֵשׁ וְגָפְרִית ["He will rain upon the wicked snares, fire and sulfur"], and יַמִּיטוּ עֲלֵיהֶם גֶּחָלִים בָּאֵשׁ יַפִּלֵם ["Let burning coals fall upon them; let them be cast into the fire"] — and so on throughout this genre.
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If anyone seeks to understand how a body and soul could live permanently without food, we give them the analogy of Moses our Teacher (peace be upon him),
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whom God (blessed be His Name) sustained three times for forty days and forty nights without food, as it says: וַיְהִי שָׁם עִם ה' אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם וְאַרְבָּעִים לַיְלָה לֶחֶם לֹא אָכַל וּמַיִם לֹא שָׁתָה ["And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he ate no bread and drank no water"],
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and what sustained his life was the light that God created and clothed his face with, as it says: וּמֹשֶׁה לֹא יָדַע כִּי קָרַן עוֹר פָּנָיו ["Moses did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant"].
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God made this a sign and an approximation to our minds, so that we might infer from it that the righteous will live by light without food.
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And likewise He said to him: נֶגֶד כָּל עַמְּךָ אֶעֱשֶׂה נִפְלָאֹת אֲשֶׁר לֹא נִבְרְאוּ בְכָל הָאָרֶץ וּבְכָל הַגּוֹיִם ["Before all your people I will do wonders such as have not been created in all the earth or among any nation"],
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which corresponds to what He says to the righteous: וּמֵעוֹלָם לֹא שָׁמְעוּ לֹא הֶאֱזִינוּ עַיִן לֹא רָאָתָה אֱלֹהִים זוּלָתְךָ יַעֲשֶׂה לִמְחַכֵּה לוֹ ["From of old no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You who acts for those who wait for Him"].
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As for how the punished who are made to dwell permanently in fire shall live — we find no precedent among former persons who experienced such a thing to use as an analogy.
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So since no such analogy exists, Scripture supplies an explicit statement regarding the disbelievers: כִּי תוֹלַעְתָּם לֹא תָמוּת וְאִשָּׁם לֹא תִכְבֶּה ["For their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched"].
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This statement requires that their souls be preserved in their bodies by some subtle quality — separate from the painful heat — so that the pain functions as their punishment and they are capable of enduring it.
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Likewise it holds that the souls of the rewarded are preserved in their bodies by a subtle quality, so that the light reaching them is a permanent pleasure beyond the quality by which they endure —
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though the need to posit this sustaining subtle quality is more pressing for the punished than for the rewarded,
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as you see that earthly kings, when intending to punish someone for a long time, provide them with food and drink lest the person perish before the punishment is complete,
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for they do so bound by nature — whereas the Creator (glorious is His glory) acts above nature, preserving and sustaining without food.
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Reward is called "the Garden of Eden" because there is nothing finer in this world than that garden in which Adam (peace be upon him) was made to dwell.
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Punishment is called "Gehenna" because Scripture named it Topheth — a place in a valley near Jerusalem called הַתֹּפֶת וְגֵיא בֶן הִנֹּם [Topheth and the Valley of Ben-Hinnom], also called גֵּיא הִנֹּם [Valley of Hinnom] in
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the Book of Joshua. The lofty comparison ends with the Garden of Adam: כְּגַן עֵדֶן הָאָרֶץ לְפָנָיו ["the land before him was like the Garden of Eden"],
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and the base comparison ends with the place of Topheth: וְהָיוּ בָּתֵּי יְרוּשָׁלַם וּבָתֵּי מַלְכֵי יְהוּדָה כִּמְקוֹם הַתֹּפֶת הַטְּמֵאִים ["The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be like the unclean place of Topheth"].
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Chapter 6. Having clarified the two natures, I respond to the third question: the place where the rewarded and the punished will reside.
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Since they are persons with bodies and souls, they necessarily have a place in which they settle and an atmosphere that encompasses them — both of which the Creator (mighty and exalted) will create, and He will cause them to dwell in it.
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The necessities of creation compel this conclusion. Scripture likewise mentions it, but names it "heaven and earth" as an approximation to our understanding — since we observe nothing other than heaven and earth —
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as in His saying: כִּי כַאֲשֶׁר הַשָּׁמַיִם הַחֲדָשִׁים וְהָאָרֶץ הַחֲדָשָׁה אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי עֹשֶׂה וְגוֹ ["For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make..."].
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And I say by way of clarification: what is the wisdom in requiring new heavens and a new earth? Could He not reward them in this known place?
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The answer: this earth was prepared mostly for nutritional needs — and therefore it has fields for crops, fields for orchards, rivers and springs for watering trees and plants,
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mountains and valleys for rain and floods, wilderness areas with pastures for wild animals, wastelands with paths for travelers. We need all these features in this world because of our need for food and livelihood.
But in the World to Come, where there is no eating and no earning, there is no need for fields, plants, rivers, mountains, valleys, or any of these features —