Heaven and Paradise: Where Is It?

Heaven or Paradise, first of all, is not to be understood as a “place” in the spatial connotation of the word. It is not a place somewhere in outer space, or deep down beneath the surface of the earth that is filled with the greatest material pleasures and delights.

Conversely, Hell is not a fiery place for the wicked to burn endlessly. These images of both Heaven and Hell have certainly developed as a result of the childish literal meaning that was ascribed to these concepts. The fact that the Bible and other Jewish texts spoke in metaphoric terms about these patently spiritual notions, led many to conceive of them in physical terms.

Indeed, even the conception of G-d as a physical being, was not only a Christian take on the subject, but many a devout Jew was influenced by the literal meaning of the Biblical text and ascribed physical and bodily proportions to G-d. When Maimonides declared that anyone who attributes physical properties to the Deity is a heretic, Maimonides great critic, known as the Ra’avad (Rabbi Avraham from Posquires)

demurred sharply and stated that :”many greater and better people have held such erroneous views because the literal meaning of the Biblical text gave them that impression.” Obviously, Ra’avad does not accept any physical ascription to G-d, but he considers them to be justifiable errors.

It is within the mystical tradition, particularly within Chassidic literature, that the non-spatial conception of heaven and Hell are articulated.

When the soul leaves the body, the soul is liberated from its physical shackle that prevented it from appreciating its own spiritual state. The state of Heaven or Paradise, is the ideal state of the soul, because it is where the soul can experience the presence of G-d, its very source.

When the soul was contained within the body, the soul never lost its desire to be in a state of oneness with G-d. Because the body had other interests, the soul’s yearning would be the cause of dissatisfaction and depression. The soul always had a desire to return to its Heavenly source. Now that the soul has separated from the body, the soul’s sense of relief and bliss are indescribable.

We should not understand the state of Paradise to be in any form or shape as a physical location, on earth or any other place in the physical universe. Rather we should view the sate of Paradise as a state of mind, which is ubiquitous. Just as the concept of 2+2=4 does not have any specific location where it resides, but, by definition, is true all over, similarly, the state of Paradise is not confined to any single place. It is a state of being.

It should be pointed out that together with the blissful feeling that the soul now has – upon its separation from the body – the soul has a feeling of yearning in reverse. When the soul was in the body it yearned to be out of it, free and unhampered in its ability to experience spiritual bliss. Now that it is out of the body and divorced from the world of physical action, the soul experiences a reverse feeling of yearning to be back in our world.

The nature of this feeling of yearning and the way that the soul realizes its goal of coming back we will discuss, G-d willing, in Chapter 18. For our purposes now, we will dwell on the soul’s feelings of spiritual bliss that it experiences once it is separated from its earthly cover – the body.

From the book Safe Kabbalah, Part Three: Journeys of the Soul by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.