I had the same question as you guys! I emailed someone the question. As you can see, I was tired when I emailed her and so it came out wrong. Instead if saying that death represents the loss if our ability to do Mitzvos so that in turn, we will get reward, I said that death represents the end of our ability to get reward . Oh well, gam zu letova! Ok here’s what I emailed her:
I’ve been struggling with this question for a while and it’s kind of hard to get down in writing, but I’ll try.
Basically, why would any intelligent human being want Mashiach to come, if when he comes Hashem will take away our Yetzer hara and we’ll just do Mitzvos without any real effort, which means that we won’t get rewarded?
Now at first glance, my question may seem selfish, but when you understand that our reward is connection to Hashem, it comes out better 🙂
To me, Mashiach’s coming is like death. After death, we have no potential. That’s why death is feared: cuz it represents the end of our ability to get reward. If when Mashiach comes, there will be no potential, then how is it better than death?
AND HERE IS HER REPLY:
Hi,
Thank you for your feedback and for your question. I don’t see it as a selfish question at all. I can see where it is coming from. It’s coming from a good place, a place of yearning for closeness, connection and positive growth. You want to keep moving but you’re worried that when moshiach comes you’ll be stuck in the same place and wont be able to grow.
There is a lot we don’t know about the time of the coming of moshiach. I don’t know if you’ve heard this but there’s a quote that says, “Those who say don’t know and those who know don’t say.” Meaning-it is something hidden from us and those who talk about it as if they know, really don’t know and those who do know will not talk about it-because they are great enough and know that it cannot be revealed. Having said that, I probably shouldn’t say anything because…what do I know? and what can I say? 🙂
But I’ll try to answer your question.
Do we know that when Moshiach comes we will do mitzvos without any effort? What does the destruction of the yetzer hara mean to you? Does that mean we still won’t have bechira? Free will to choose between what is good and better? Will things be easy for us and we will not have any struggles at all? Does Moshiach’s arrival along with yetzer hara’s death mean that life will be all bliss? There are a lot of medroshim about the time of moshiach that are not meant to be taken literally yet when people talk about it, they translate it word-for-word as if this is exactly the way things will be. It wasn’t spelled out for a reason. Hashem put things down in allegorical fashion so that we won’t know what will be.
We also don’t know what it means to be connected to Hashem from the spirituality of living with the bais Hamikdosh…watching the korbanos and everything going on with kohanim, leviyim, yomim tovim. Those times are meant to increase our awareness of Hashem and our connection to Him. So I’m not sure that Moshiach’s arrival will mean that we will lose or that our connection will decrease. If anything, I imagine these things will help our connection get stronger and better.
There’s a small piece about moshiach in the middle of this post. Read it too. Perhaps you’ll find it helpful.
Why is that how you define death? Physical death means a person is not alive in this world and cannot do any more actions to receive reward. However, spiritual death would be more scary to me. A person who lived his life properly and left a legacy or impacted other people can continue to reap rewards for the actions being done down here that he started, actions that were caused by the ripple effect-because of the actions during his lifetime. I don’t see death as an end to our ability to get reward. Once a person dies, they just begin to be rewarded for the good they have done down here and the good that continues to be done because of them. Death is only fearful because that is when a person can no longer do their own actions and impact other people to do positive actions. But there is still potential for reward after a person dies.
I like when people think and ask. It says a lot about you that you care about your spirituality this much. Let me know what you think of this and if you still have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!