At the very end of our physical journey in This World, there will be a judgment: Did we fulfill our mission, learn lessons, do what we came here to do? Time will have run out. Whatever we accomplished, we accomplished, and we’ll no longer have physical bodies that can help us do more.
Our “faux-death” on Yom Kippur and the judgment of our past year gives us a glimpse of this bigger judgment to come, but with one major difference. Usually we’ll be able to “return to our bodies.” After Yom Tov, we’ll have another chance to accomplish still more before the Ultimate Judgment comes upon us. Whew! There’s still something we can do! But will we do it?
Eating is a major sport, favorite pastime, addictive hobby and more. We love to eat! Of course we need to eat, too, but that’s not why we do it. We need to exercise, but we may or may not avail ourselves of it. We eat because we enjoy food. We eat because we crave food. We eat because we’re earthlings living in physical bodies. We need food to sustain those bodies, but we eat food because it tastes good. In His wisdom, Hashem ensured that we would want to eat so that we would continue to eat and thereby continue to exist so that our body can carry our soul around.
Our soul is the main act, the reason for our existence. Without our soul, we’re just ordinary eating animals like the other animals who eat. But the truth of all this eludes us until, one day, Yom Kippur to be exact, we have to stop eating. “Ohhhhhh. I forgot. My bodily desires are not the main point! Thank You, Hashem, for reminding me! But then, what is the main point? What is the task of the soul?”
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