Olam HaBa and Olam HaZeh are not completely separate realities. The Gemara discusses how there are many examples of realities in this world give us insight into how things are in the world to come. (One example is how the butterfly emerges from the cocoon. This makes being buried and emerging in a superior state of life a tangible idea: תחיית המתים)
We know that Chazal explain that Tzadikim have no rest in this world and no rest in the next. In this world they are constantly at work. In the world to come they have no down time either because they are constantly being elevated to more sublime states of paradise. ילכו מחיל אל חיל.
The Arizal taught that each level of Gan Eden requires more pristine spiritual status of the soul. Just as when one dies he stands before the heavenly court, is punished for his sins and only then is he ready to experience Gan Eden, so too when a Neshama is ready to be promoted to a higher state of Gan Eden that judgement process must repeat itself again with an even greater level of exactitude. This ensures the soul's readiness.
How does this reality express itself in Olam HaZeh?
Every person wants to grow in spirituality. We want to be better. But sometimes right before we can climb we experience some sort of discomfort. Looking back, how many times did I thrive in Ruchiniyus - davka when pulling myself out of a slump? Having achieved what this level has to offer, I fall a bit and then I'm ready to surge forth even stronger.
More specifically, sometimes I do real Teshuva on something I did wrong, yet later down the line it floats to the surface of my consciousness again. Why is Hashem reminding me of this? I thought that we moved on. Why can't we just let that go already?
The answer is that at those moments that we slump we are going through the parallel process of the souls in heaven: We are being primed for the next level. It's true that Teshuvah was done on that slip-up already, but my new spiritual-stature demands a deeper and more profound Teshuvah . The עגמת נפש - the distress felt over a wrongdoing is itself the purification process that allows me to soar higher.
ילכו מחיל אל חיל
(מבוסס על תניא פרק כט וצדקת הצדיק סימן נז ו סימן סז)
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