Avot260

6:
It is very tempting – indeed, it is almost natural – to assume that in our present mishnah Rabbi Ya'akov is speaking of the afterlife; that he means to say that this present life, in the world that we know, must be seen as a mere preparation for "the swelling scene" of a life in heaven or paradise, a life that can only be accessed after our physical death.

7:
However, those who pay careful attention to the details of his metaphor may see his intention in a different light. Rabbi Ya'akov uses a metaphor taken from the life of the well-to-do. We need not assume that the well-to-do are Romans; wealthy Jews also lived a similar life style. We need only recall, for instance, that the prize student of Rabbi Ya'akov, Rabbi Yehudah who eventually became the president of the Sanhedrin and compiler of the Mishnah, was exceedingly wealthy, lived in huge palace-like villas, with many servants – villas which were fit to host a Roman emperor and may well have done so! The Gemara [Sanhedrin 91a-b], for example, records some of the table talk between Rabbi Yehudah and his imperial guest, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.

8:
A typical villa in mishnaic times consisted of many rooms. Upon entering the villa one found oneself in the atrium. This was an antechamber (usually with part of the roof open so that rain water could fall into a decorative pool in the centre of the chamber) from which one had access to the other rooms of the villa. One of the most important of these other rooms was the triclinium, the dining room, where honoured guests were wined and dined. It is this word that Rabbi Ya'akov uses in our mishnah and which we have translated as 'main hall'. It is as if he were saying: get ready in the atrium before entering into the triclinium.

In the typical floor plan reproduced here the large number 1 indicates the atrium; the small number 5 indicates the impluvium, the pool for rainwater; and the small number 7 indicates the triclinium The rest of the indications are not relevant to our discussion. (The main entrance from the street is to the left.)

9:
In the metaphor proposed by Rabbi Ya'akov this life is to be identified with the atrium: this is just the entrance way, the hallway where guests are received before they are ushered into the triclinium. But only those who are worthy will be granted access to the triclinium, to enjoy the banquet prepared by the Master of the house.

10:
We have mentioned on several occasions that in mishnaic times the concept of the afterlife was different from the concept that most people have today. Only recently [Avot 256] I gave a brief review of the belief as it was then held. The idea that after death the soul goes to heaven is one that finds its first serious mention in the works of Rambam, particularly his Guide for the Perplexed. From personal letters of his that have survived we know that he was vigourously attacked by his contemporaries for propagating this Aristotelian idea which seemed to contradict the ancient rabbinic concept of Teĥiyyat ha-Metim, the resurrection of the dead. Ultimately Rambam had to write a rather convoluted article "On Resurrection" in which he claimed that he had not deviated from the traditional view. But his argument is so (deliberately?) convoluted that one is just as bewildered after reading it as one was before.

11:
Rabbi Ya'akov is alluding to the great 'banquet' to which the righteous will be invited at 'the end of days' when all the dead of all the ages will be resurrected and judged: "some to everlasting life, and others to shame and everlasting abhorrence" [Daniel 12:2]. Thus, we are to prepare ourselves in this life so that when the great day comes at the end of history we shall be judged sufficiently worthy to enter the triclinium.

12:
One hour of repentance and good deeds in this world is better than all the life of the next world. In his commentary on our present mishnah Rabbi Ovadya of Bertinoro explains why:

And one hour of serenity in the next world is better than all the life of this world. – The reward, if justly earned, is better than anything that this world has to offer.