פירוש על אבות 4:16

Rabbi Yaakov says: This world is like a hallway before the world to come. Fix yourself in the hallway so you may enter the (beautiful) traklin: A traklin is a palace. And he wants to say that this world is only in order that one should merit the world to come.

A traklin is a chamber and a prozdor is a gatehouse. And the metaphor is clear and the intention is known. As it is in this world that a man acquires the virtues through which he merits the world to come. As this world is indeed a path and a passageway to the world to come.

"Hallway (prozdor)": A gatehouse. The [Aramaic] translation of chamber is prozdora.

Introduction Rabbi Jacob was the teacher of Rabbi Judah Hanasi, who composed the mishnah. He appeared above in chapter three, mishnah seven (the printed edition of the Mishnah mistakenly reads Rabbi Shimon). In another place Rabbi Jacob was famous for stating that all heavenly punishments and rewards are meted out in the world to come. In other words, in this world there is no correlation between a person’s virtues and his fate.

"drawing room": The place where the king sits. So [too], you should fix yourself in this world so that you will merit the world to come.

Rabbi Jacob said: this world is like a vestibule before the world to come; prepare yourself in the vestibule, so that you may enter the banqueting-hall. The world in which we live is, according to Rabbi Jacob, merely a vestibule in preparation for the main meal, that is the world to come. A person must perform good deeds in this world, in order to ensure himself a place in the world to come. In a midrash on Proverbs a similar teaching appears. “In the future the wicked will ask God to give them a chance to repent. God will answer them saying ‘you fools, the world you were in was like the day before the Sabbath and this world [the world to come] is like the Sabbath. If one doesn’t prepare on the Sabbath eve, how will he have to eat on the Sabbath…[God further said], ‘the world you were in was like dry land and the world to come like sailing on the sea. If one doesn’t prepare food while on dry land, how will he have to eat while at sea.’”