Can I Have a Pool Table in Heaven?
Q. Does God give us free gifts in Heaven?
A. Thanks for your question. We don't know much about Heaven, but we do know that it's a spiritual experience, rather than a physical one. I don't know what you mean by "gifts," but if it's something physical, like a motorcycle or a pool table, your soul wouldn't have much use for it and it wouldn't give your soul any pleasure.
Pleasure to a soul comes from proximity to God. The more reward one has earned, the "closer" one's soul is to God in Heaven. (What exactly "proximity to God" means and how it rewards a soul I couldn't say, but I know it's better than a big-screen TV or an Olympic-sized swimming pool.)
Q. Can you explain why Heaven doesn’t have physical things?
A. There's a "physical world" and a "spiritual world." Physical things are, by definition, in the physical world. We can't perceive the spiritual things with our senses. You can read more about all this here.
Q. Can God create something physical in Heaven?
A. As far as questions of "can God...," people have a great misunderstanding about what God "can" and "cannot" do. The great "gotcha" question is supposedly "Can God make a rock so heavy that He can't lift it?" People think that whatever you answer, it suggests a shortcoming on the part of God – either He "can't" make such a rock, or He "can't" lift it. In truth, the question is invalid because concepts like "too heavy" and "lift" don't apply to God. It's like asking, "Can God make an eight-sided triangle?" Failure to do so is not a shortcoming on the part of God (God forbid), it's just that by definition a triangle has three sides; if it has eight sides, it's an octagon. Similarly, it's not that God "can't" have physical things in Heaven, it's that the physical realm and the spiritual realm have defining characteristics.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the rare individuals, like Elijah, who either visited Heaven or were taken into Heaven alive. I assume that "visitors" saw Heaven in a vision, while those who were taken there were somehow transformed into spiritual beings, but we aren't given that level of detail.
Rabbi Jack's book Ask Rabbi Jack is available from Kodesh Press and on Amazon.com.