Perfectionists seek perfection in everything. They’re the one’s that have to see themselves as wanting the best for themselves even when they leave this world. If we’re going to develop ourselves correctly and regard ourselves as wanting the best of everything in the physical world, then surely we must think the same for the higher spiritual world which is for all eternity.
Then there are those who don’t regard themselves as perfectionists. But nevertheless there’s a certain jealousy they have of others. When they see others doing more than they do. Suddenly they wake up and say that they too can achieve those things! If so, then such people must also be prepared to think this way about the next world – of eternity. Once there, there won’t be an opportunity to do more and become greater. Imagine seeing others there in that world who actually did attain more “honour” in that world through their righteous deeds. What a shame! If we’d feel this shame here, all the more so there, where the life of the soul has eternal existence from the good deeds it has done here.
Then there are those (lazy) people who say that as far as striving for that life of eternity and going good – they say that they are more than happy to just get entrance into that magical world. Why the bother of further effort? It would be more than enough to just enter. And if we can be good enough to “get in” (so to speak) that will suffice. And they say this sincerely with a smile!
But the Ramchal points out, how do people feel in this world about such a lackadaisical attitude? Is this how we behave here thinking to ourselves that just the bare minimum is necessary?! Imagine such an attitude and as life goes by, we see others who once were even “lower” than us in their achievements (who we may even have mistreated thinking lowly of them) and then suddenly, we see just how great they really become years later. And as for ourselves, we are still the same – never having grown more than from what we achieved at a basic school level (whether academically or whether in our improvement of ourselves.) Imagine the shame here in this world!
This feeling will be no different when we leave this physical body to enter into those spiritual realms in the World-to-Come. Therefore, even for those who feel (lazy) that it will just suffice to do the minimum of everything – let them take a lesson from how life works in this world, so that they will be aware of how things will be for them in the next world. This in itself should be a great prompting to how to get on in doing the task at hand in this world – the fulfillment of good deeds, and the study of the Torah.
