Gan Eden (גן עדן) — the Garden of Eden

Core definition

Gan Eden is the spiritual realm in which the souls of the righteous dwell after the body's death — the World to Come in its revealed, soul-experienced form — and also the primordial garden of Adam. In the maamarim it is described through the verse "ויטע ה׳ אלקים גן בעדן" (Bereishis 2:8), "the full name — Havayah's revelation" [31643/maamar_034 :: Overview]: the Garden is the place of the Divine name's revelation, distinct from the worlds, which receive only "the lower seven" sefiros' light, while "Gan Eden's [light is] from the first three" [31643/maamar_034 :: Overview].

How the Rebbeim develop it

The maamarim distinguish two levels in Gan Eden: "Gan Eden in essence (ויטע ה׳ אלקים — the full name — Havayah's revelation... the difference from the worlds — (1) worlds' light from the lower seven, Gan Eden's from the first three; (2) worlds: knowing the existence, Gan Eden: revelation of the essence — all memaleh)" and "the added lights through the Garden's avodah (as a garden improved through work)" [31643/maamar_034 :: Overview]. "He placed him in Gan Eden, to work it and to guard it" (Bereishis 2:15): l'ovdah — the 248 positive mitzvos — l'shomrah — the 365 prohibitions — "to draw Ohr Ein Sof below" [31643/maamar_034 :: Overview]. "Gan Eden in itself is memaleh; through avodah we draw sovev" [31643/maamar_034 :: Overview]. Adam's body before the sin was "utterly refined, no evil mixture, the soul's light revealed" — his avodah there "wasn't to refine but to draw Ohr Ein Sof's revelation"; after the sin the body coarsened and the avodah became refinement — "sent to work the earth" [31643/maamar_034 :: Overview]. "What was taken from the earth is the body (the soul is חלק אלוקה ממעל)" [31643/maamar_034 :: Overview].

The standard division is Gan Eden haTachton (the Lower) and Gan Eden haElyon (the Upper): "heavens and earth are Gan Eden haTachton and Gan Eden haElyon; 'earth' is the nickname to Gan Eden haTachton; 'heavens' the nickname to Gan Eden haElyon" — on "His splendor is upon earth and heavens" (Tehillim 148:13): "there the tzadikim enjoy from the Shechinah's radiance" [58835/maamar_025 :: [עמוד 157–158]]. "There is a pillar between Gan Eden haTachton and Gan Eden haElyon joining them" — and "in particulars they are a multitude of aspects and levels until without measure" [58835/maamar_025 :: עב׳ 64–65; [עמוד 157–158]]. The Sages' "the tzadikim have no rest, neither in this world nor in the World to Come" (Berachos 64a) and "they shall go from strength to strength" (Tehillim 84:8) are read as the souls' perpetual ascent: "as the tzadikim in their avodah in the Torah and mitzvos in this world ascend in ilui after ilui — so in the World to Come they ascend in ilui after ilui; like the Avos's and Moshe our Rebbe's and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai's neshamahs, and all the tzadikim in Gan Eden — ascending three times in each and every day in the Gan Eden's higher levels" [58835/maamar_025 :: [עמוד 157–158]]. Each level is joined to the one above it by its own pillar, "through which is the neshamahs' ascent from this Gan Eden to above it" [58835/maamar_025 :: [עמוד 157–158]].

A striking hierarchy: "the mitzvah's joy being above all the Gan Eden's aspects and levels — therefore it is said in the mitzvah's joy: 'from the multitude of all' (mirov kol)" — on the Sages' "beautiful is one hour in teshuvah and good deeds in this world than all the World to Come's life" (Avos 4:17): "all these revelations — even the most elevated — are in the aspect of illumination; in contrast, the practical mitzvos in general — the mitzvah's joy in particular — are an essential drawing" [58835/maamar_025 :: [עמוד 157–158]]. Gan Eden, for all its levels, is ha'arah (illumination); the mitzvah's joy is etzem (essence).

Key distinctions

Related concepts

Sources