The Garden

​   by Reb Gutman Locks   

The Garden

     When the body dies and the soul returns to the place from where it came, one of the first things that happens is a Bas Kol comes (a voice from higher Heaven). The soul is asked, “Did you enjoy My world while you were there?”

     If the soul answers, as many do, “What are You nuts? That place there is a mess! What with all the wars and famine and racial strife, not to mention the Muslims killing each other every day, and thousands of other innocent people being slaughtered! Agh!” then that soul will have to come back to this world again and again until it realizes why this world was created.

     The Zohar says, “Just like did Hashem place man (Adam) in the Garden back then, so does He place man in the Garden now, when he repents of his sins busies himself with the Torah”[i]

     When we look at the wars and apparent injustices, and rightfully judge them to be evil we are immediately exiled from the Garden for having eaten of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad. We then find ourselves in the land where we must work by the sweat of our brow in order to survive.

     When we see all the bad in the world to be the results of G-d allowing man freewill, and that in the end it will all have been for the good, when we look at the beauty here even in the simplest things, we find ourselves back in the Garden of Eden serving the Creator of all.