The reason for happiness in the afflictions of the body¹ is that they are a great and potent favor for the sinning soul to cleanse it in This World and to redeem it from purification in the next. (This is particularly true in our generations, when it is not possible to fast—in accordance with the prescriptions in the penances of the Arizal²—as imperative for the cleansing of the soul, to rescue it from cleansing in Gehinom.)

footnotes: ¹ Quoted end of last chapter. ² See above, ch. 2, note 9.

Nachmanides, in his Introduction to the Commentary on Job, writes that even the sufferings of Job for seventy years have absolutely no comparison to the suffering of a soul even briefly in Gehinom, for [physical] fire is one sixtieth….³.” Berachot 57b. It is only that the world is built by kindness,⁴ and through mild suffering in This World one is saved from severe judgments in the Coming World.

footnotes: ³ “…of that of Gehinom ⁴ Psalms 89:3.

The movement of a shadow on earth of a few inches equals the sun’s movement in the heaven of thousands of miles…. Infinitely more so is this true in the parallel, in the descent of the worlds, from the most exalted heights until this physical world. We see this in the Zohar’s comments on the subject of the elevation of the higher worlds as a result of the initiative taken by man below. The Zohar describes the effects of the offering of one fowl, a dove or pigeon, or a handful of meal, on the altar. Such are the effects of all the mitzvot of performance, as known from the Arizal.

This too is our Sages’ comment on the verse, “Sanctify yourselves, and you shall be holy”⁵—man sanctifies himself only a little below, and he becomes sanctified in great measure from above….⁶ 39a. (It was noted above⁷ in reference to “Who sanctified us with His commandments…” [that Israel’s sanctification through mitzvot is bound up with the Infinite, that] encompasses all worlds….)

footnotes: ⁵ Leviticus 11:44. ⁶ Yoma ⁷ Ch. 10.

Precisely so is it in reference to reward and punishment, as our Sages⁸ 4:2. say, “The reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah…” as discussed elsewhere. This knowledge is elementary to the understanding, and those with intelligence in this matter will discover good.

footnotes: ⁸ Avot