Chapter 12

We mentioned at the end of last chapter how wise it is to consider that anything bad that occurs to one is a punishment (perhaps even for a sin done in a previous lifetime, as this causes one to not get angry – not blame a person) now the Alter Rebbe discuses how we can even rejoice in our pains (hence not allowing them to get us down) for a drop of suffering in this world erases mountains of pain in the next.

The reason for this is: he gives an example that if one imagines a sundial, so the movement of one hour on the sundial based on the shadow, comes from tens of thousands of miles of distance which the sun orbits, hence we see how a small drop of suffering in this world excludes tremendous suffering in the next (in fact he brings down that if one were to imagine someone who has the most excruciating life and this continues for 70 years! it wouldn’t compare to a single hour in hell, as the fire of hell burns 60x the heat of the sun – ouch!)

But the flip side is also true, that the tiniest good-deed below, any act of kindness, any mitzvah has an extraordinary effect, drawing in a Divine light through all the spiritual to the physical universe! (though currently we cannot see it, but when Moshiach comes we will!)