a footnote to the class on pleasure....

For what it's worth, I was, myself, thrown off kilter by the talk and feel my own class was not as focused as I would have liked, particularly the second half. I wanted to impress upon you that contrary to what we may have assumed would be the goal of creation, the Jewish vision is about pleasure. A very beautiful pleasure who's ultimate manifestation will be experienced as a consequence of our success in this lifetime. The task that has been asked of us will not only provide us with the deepest, most spiritual pleasures in this life (ranging from dignity, accomplishment, self-control and wisdom to the physical pleasures of intimacy, true love, beauty, harmony, food and wine, etc.), but will also be the very fabric of an exponentially tremendous pleasure in the world of reward. This is how, historically, great Jews have seen the world. This was second nature to them. Mitzvot are the means through which we connect ultimate spirituality and truth to the world of physicality, thereby attaining true happiness here, and ultimate pleasure there. But the point that was left unsaid was as follows: although the end goal is there, that's not our focus at all. In the entire Torah, there is not one mention of the world to come. It has nothing to do with us here and to focus on it would be detrimental to our involvement in the physical world. We're meant to know about it and be inspired by it, for sure, which was the goal last night. We're meant to understand that the Jewish people have always been able to strongly rely on the promised reward of a successful life lived. But our focus must be clearly localized, directed and actualized. We don't pine for "there", rather we bring "there" here.

shmuel