GEN1213 And everything is prepared for the banquet.   Pirkei Avot III:20  Everything in this world is actually only a preparation for the “banquet” in the world to come. The Talmud has an adage: “The one who has toiled on the day before Sabbath will eat on the Sabbath.” Avodah Zarah 3a.   Our existence here on earth is merely a short interval between two eternities: the oblivion until birth and the eternity that follows our death. We run our course between these two poles. If our path is straight, our actions sincere, our values worthwhile, we will have achieved an eternity of bliss. On the other hand, should our path be crooked, our actions hypocritical and our values derived from the gutter, then we have nothing to look forward to. “Everything is in preparation for the banquet.” Commentary of Rabbenu Yonah Tradition tells us that Jacob once said to his twin brother Esau, “My brother, we are our father’s only two sons, and before us there are two worlds: this world and the world-to-come” – or , if you will, the material and the spiritual realms. “In this world there will be food and drink, business and trade, marriage and children; but in the world-to-come there will be none of these. If you like, you take this world and I will take the Hereafter.” And Esau agreed. Seder Eliyahu Zuta XIX; Genesis Rabbah 25:22 Esau, the man of the field and the hunt, desired only this world, the world of the senses, the chase, the excitement of pursuit and conquest. Jacob, the “quiet man dwelling in tents,” [this verse] chose the world of the spirit, the world of contemplation; he preferred to wrestle with an angel and have a vision of a ladder to Heaven.   Without any doubts, he chouse the world-to-come. He accepted the kind of life after which he would find “everything prepared for the banquet” – for eternal bliss in the Hereafter.   SINAI1 334-5