Death

"Just as the life of the embryo merely constitutes the transition to a broader and more exciting life, - so, to an even greater extent, is life on Earth merely the prelude to a more fascinating, glorious life, which man, confined within his puny body and with limited perception, is incapable of conceiving."  

Human existence - as man passes through this world from birth to death - is either all or nothing.  Either life constitutes a passage to nothing, without any substance at all, or else it endures for eternity - retaining all its original good and happiness.  Either one's days are a bridge to death or a bridge to life.  

For the person, however, to whom life is a transition to an enduring future, it constitutes the corridor leading to the palace, the "inn" in which he prepares himself for his appearance in the palace.  Hence this life has great meaning for him, and similarly his sufferings.  For if death is a cessation, then life has no goal; but if life does possess a goal, then death is no cessation.  

For the first type of individual, then, life has no real substance, while for the seocnd, death has none.  This is what the Rabbis of the Talmud asserted: "The wicked, while still alive, are considered dead; the righteous, even when dead, are considered to be alive." (Berochos 18a)  The second lives for his soul, which endures, and so his life has no end".    Gaon