Olam haba—the world to come עולם הבא
"All Israel have a share in the world to come"—with this line a chapter begins, and with it the reading of Mishnah on the Sabbath. What that world is, the sages describe sparely and with caution.
The Torah speaks almost nowhere directly of reward after death—it speaks of rain in its season, of bread, of long life on the land. That silence is ancient and deliberate, and has been explained in various ways; the teaching about the world to come was worked out by the sages.
How it is described. Sparely: "in the world to come there is no eating and no drinking, no envy and no rivalry—the righteous sit with crowns on their heads and delight in the radiance of the Divine Presence." Everything else in that description is a negation: it says what is not there.
Three different things that get confused. Olam haba is not the days of the messiah: those days are of this world and do not abolish history. Nor is it the resurrection of the dead, which has a principle of its own. Rambam sets these out in order and puts the world to come last, not first.
Why "all Israel." The Mishnah begins with "all" and only then names the exceptions. That order is itself a teaching: the share is given not as a reward to the best but as a belonging; to lose it one must manage it.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:1 — "all Israel have a share in the world to come," and the exceptions
- Berachot 17a — "no eating and no drinking… they delight in the radiance of the Divine Presence"
Rishonim
- Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Repentance 8 — the distinction between the world to come, the days of the messiah, and the resurrection
Basis: Talmud and midrash.