“This is a wondrous testimony of the benevolence and truth meted out upon the wicked … they shall be altogether holy, but compared to the tzaddikim, who are above them, in allegorical terms they are described as being “ash beneath their feet.”
Translated by Boruch Merkur
d) In Meseches P’sachim (54a) it says in the name of Rebbi Yosi: “The fire that G-d created on the second day (the fire of Gehinom ––Rashi) will never be extinguished.” At first glance, this statement contradicts what we have just established [that the punishment of Gehinom will come to an end].
However, it has already been explained in Asara Maamaros (maamer Chikur Din 5:5) as well as Eimek HaMelech (Shaar Shaashuei HaMelech, Ch. 1): When Rebbi Yosi said that Gehinom “will never be extinguished” the intent is not that its fire will never stop burning; it means that the entire time the world exists, it will not be extinguished, but when the Alm-ghty terminates the world [as we know it] and annihilates evil, and in its place there will be the rest and tranquility of eternal life, then also Gehinom will be eradicated.
e) It says in Meseches Rosh HaShana (17a) about “poshei Yisroel b’gufam – Jews who sin with their bodies [meaning Jews whose “skulls never donned t’fillin” ––Rosh HaShana 17a] that after twelve months their bodies are annihilated and their souls are burnt, and a wind scatters them beneath the feet of tzaddikim.” At first glance the meaning here is that the life of their souls will stop living. However, Ramban in Shaar HaG’mul writes: “Their souls are burnt and become ashes, meaning the form of the soul will be annulled like something that is burnt and turned to ashes. And G-d’s Ruach HaKodesh, His gratifying spirit and will, scatters them beneath the feet of the tzaddikim, meaning that their souls are cast to a lesser level of holiness than the pleasure and tranquility experienced by the tzaddikim.”
Similarly it is written in Asara Maamaros (maamer Chikur Din 5:7) as well as Eimek HaMelech (Shaar Ava, Ch. 46) regarding this saying of our Sages, “for they will be ashes, etc.”: “This is a wondrous testimony of the benevolence and truth meted out upon the wicked … they shall be altogether holy, but compared to the tzaddikim, who are above them, in allegorical terms they are described as being “ash beneath their feet.”
(To be continued be”H)
(From a letter dated Monday, the 16th of Tammuz 5703; Igros Kodesh Vol. 1, pg. 141 ff.)