Letters of the Chafetz Chaim /Letter 47 – 66

In the world to come a person will be asked to present the Torah he learned before the divine tribunal.If he is prudent and prepared himself with whatever Torah he could learn, he will surely receive his just reward, as the verse exclaims, ‘how great is the reward awaiting those who feared you’. But a person who did not prepare himself during his lifetime, and did not amass whatever learning he could have, will be mortified when asked to show his goods and his sack is empty. Even if he has other tremendous merits but did not learn Torah, these merts will not help him to come back to life when the dead are resurrected, because only Torah gives sustenance to this eternal life. Even if his father was a very learned person, his father will not be able to help him, because our Sages taught that a child can give merit to his father, but a father cannot bequeath his merits to his son. Even Avraham Avinu cannot redeem Yishmael, nor can Yitzchak redeem Esav. Even if he sporadically supported Torah learners, but did not do so regularly, he cannot count on that support to give him eternal life. So a person should be prudent and prepare himself for the long journey ahead, and to pack as much Torah as he can, for only through learning or supporting Torah will he survive eternally.