IF YOU FIND YOURSELF IN GEHIINNOM

Rabbeinu explains in Torah 119 Tinyana that this world doesn't exist as a separate entity. If a person's thoughts are connected to the World-to-Come, then they actually live in the World-to-Come even in this world. But if a person wants to live a perfect life in this world, with everything going exactly as they want, then, contrary to their wishes, they'll find themselves in Gehinnom. Since it is impossible for everything to always be just so, this constant frustration actually turns one's life in this world into hell.

A contemporary Breslov Rav, Rabbi Shmuel Moshe Kramer, brings this idea a little more down to earth. Here is the essence of what he says: since the reward of the World-to-Come is impossible to fathom while in this world, here we have to concentrate on serving Hashem, which will enable us to merit this future reward. This avodah should be the end goal of what we are doing down here.

So what should a person do if they feel they are living in Gehinnom? If we don't take into account truly tragic situations, which are relatively rare, this probably means that this person thinks too much about too much on what they want, with all the inevitable frustration such an outlook engenders. , While concentrating solely on the World-to-Come might seem depressing (first I'll have to die, and then I'll finally be happy...), it would certainly make more sense on all the avodas Hashem we have to do here to get there. Suddenly, we'll find that we have a lot to do, and not enough time to focus on everything that goes wrong.

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