Death
Sometimes, it is hard to see that these things don’t really matter. We are swayed by the values of those who think money and outward success make people superior. We are also affected by what people will think about us, and it becomes difficult to regain our clarity.
Thinking about death helps us regain perspective. Take a few minutes to think about what it will be like when we die. What will be significant in the next world? What will matter forever? How should we live our lives to set us up best for eternity?
But many people are afraid to think about death. They view death as a scary situation that will be terrible because of their wrongdoings. They think of it as a time when many terrible things will happen to them coupled with feelings of regret that will last for eternity, no matter how much good they have done. Thus, they prefer not to think about it.
This does a lot of damage. Using death as a scare tactic against ourselves too often destroys our perspective on what truly matters in life. Viewing death as a time that will be horrible no matter how hard we try to be good will cause us to ignore it. Although of course we know that we will die, we won’t care about what will be then because we will be in denial about it ever happening. And this makes sense. Why wouldn’t we be in denial about something we know will be horrible?
But if we think about it, we will realize that death brings us to the world with the most amazing reward. The experiences there are so amazing that they are the point of life. Hashem only created everything in existence to give us that pleasure. We might not have any desire for it because it is hard for us to relate to it while in this world, but we must at least realize that things will be very good. Then, we will not have such negative feelings about eventually moving on to the next world after what will hopefully be a long, happy, and successful life.
Hashem only created this world to give us the bliss of the next world. If we think we will try hard now and it will still be horrible, what are we saying about Hashem? We are calling Him a failure, chas veshalom. We are saying that He did everything to give to us but set it up that He won’t be able to. We are selling Him so short.
When we no longer think of death as a horrifying experience, we will be able to deal with it. We will be able to think about death and actually see it happening. Then, we will be able to use the clarity it brings to realize what really counts — what will matter then and for all eternity.
This message holds true even if we have sinned greatly and don’t repent, chas veshalom, thereby requiring atonement after death. Even though the atonement process is painful — we definitely want to avoid it by not sinning and by repenting — what happens after death is still amazing overall. Even if we must atone for our sins before receiving the most pleasurable experience, it is well worth it. (For more on this, see Chapter 33.)
(Also see Kiddushin 39b, that Hashem tries to clean off any mostly-rightous person in this world so he doesn’t require such atonement after death.)