Q:
You have said here that husband and wife are partners in this world. In Olam Haboh, when it comes time for reward, do they come in as individuals or together? How does it work?
A:
Now, I am going to tell you my own ideas. I am not going to cite any sources because right now my mind is a blank; it could be that there are sources available.
The bond between husband and wife is only an earthly bond; however because they were partners in this world in certain things, that bond endures forever.
When she tells him, “Chaim, go out to the synagogue,” “Chaim go and study Torah” and she encourages him to do mitzvos, so whatever he does she has not a fifty percent share but one hundred percent share; they are full partners. And therefore whatever good deeds were accomplished by this firm, she draws a full salary, a full pension, forever and ever.
However, there is no such thing as husband and wife in the World to Come; there is no male and female in the World to Come and therefore these bonds cannot continue. However, bonds between friends, soul-bonds, will continue. So as much as a husband and a wife had a soul friendship, they were bound together in ideals, that will continue. We understand that because idealism will never die out; it’s eternal.
So Dovid and Yohanason, הנאהבים והנעימים בחייהם ובמותם לא נפרדו – even after death they were not separated (Shmuel II 1:23). Dovid and Yohanason remained friends in the World to Come too because it was an ahavah she’eino teluyah b’davar – a love that didn’t depend on anything and therefore it is forever.
So as much as husband and wife love each other – not because it is a wife or a husband but because together they practiced great things, they together served Hashem – so in that respect their bond will continue.
Otherwise, all other physical bonds disappear – at least to my mind – in the World to Come.
TAPE # 141 (October 1976)
