ספר דברים

Deuteronomy 16,22 “and do not set up for yourself a ‎stone pillar (as a religious symbol).” I believe that we ‎should interpret this verse in accordance with a saying of the ‎sages in Avot 4,21: ‎התקן עצמך בפרוזדור כדי שתכנס לטרקלין‎, ‎‎“prepare yourself in the vestibule so that you may [be able] to ‎enter the banquet hall.” The author of this saying, Rabbi Yaakov, ‎views life on earth as being lived in the vestibule to the celestial ‎regions, and that those who merit it will be admitted to “the ‎palace” upon leaving their bodies behind on earth. Whatever man ‎eats and drinks in this life is merely in preparation for the life to ‎come. He must see to it that when the time comes he will enter ‎that domain in a healthy condition. The sum total of what we ‎consume in food and drink while on earth is described by the ‎Talmud in Pessachim 68 as “the half that is yours.”‎‎[The Talmud there debates how the festival days ‎should be divided by the people, one opinion stating that “half” is ‎to be used for eating, drinking, and sleeping, whereas the other ‎half is to be devoted to spiritual pursuits. The Talmud, of course, ‎quotes verses from Scripture supporting such a view. Rabbi ‎Eliezer is not happy with such an interpretation and insists that ‎either the entire day of the festival be dedicated to spiritual ‎pursuits, or to mundane pursuits, the difference being which ‎festival is meant for devotion to only spiritual pursuits. ‎Ed.]‎Our author understands the word ‎לך‎ in our verse above to ‎mean that any physical enjoyments we permit ourselves even on ‎the festival days, when this is a commandment, must be viewed as ‎something transient, as only a stepping stone to when we will be ‎allowed entry into the “banquet hall,” i.e. the celestial spheres.‎