Musar zu Malachi 3:2

But there are people that do not sense the matter of death, to make provisions for the road and to rectify their actions; and they do not pay attention to the day of their death until it comes. So they are compared to animals that do not sense the matter of death until the day of slaughter - as it is stated, (Psalms 49:15), "Sheeplike they head for the pit, with death as their shepherd; the upright shall rule over them in the morning, and their form - from above him - shall waste away in the pit." Its explanation is: They lead their souls to the pit, since they don't sense the matter of their death until its sudden arrival. "With death as their shepherd" - the death of evildoers is not like the death of animals; the death of animals is once, but the death of the evildoers will shepherd them every day. [That shepherd can be a verb in the continuous present is indicated] from the wording, "shepherd Bashan and Gilead" (Micah 7:14); and from the content of (Job 18:13), "death’s first-born consumes his tendons." For destruction and deterioration will cling to the soul of the evildoers at every instant, until it is destroyed, ends and is gone. "The upright shall rule over them in the morning" - it compared the time of the resurrection of the dead to the morning, when a man wakes up from his sleep; and like the matter that is stated (Daniel 12:2), "Many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth will awake." For then the righteous will rule over the evildoers, as it is written (Malachi 3:21), "And you shall trample the wicked to a pulp, for they shall be dust beneath your feet." And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said about the matter of the day of judgement for the resurrection of the dead (Rosh Hashanah 17a), "After twelve months, their bodies end, and their souls are burnt and become ashes under the feet of the righteous - as is is stated, 'And you shall trample the wicked, etc.'" [And it is written (Psalms 49:15),] "And their form (tsuram) shall waste away in the pit" - tsuram is like tsuratam (the conventional way of writing, their form). Likewise, "idols, ketvunam" (Hosea 13:2), is understood as ketvunatam. And the soul is called the form of man. But there are some among those who speak about the soul that said, about the definition of the soul, that it is a (essential) [contingent] form. And the explanation of the matter is that the pit wears out the evildoer's soul. And it is "above (zevul) him" - for the soul is from the higher beings. [This is seen] from the wording (Isaiah 63:15), "from Your holy height (zevul)." And with his sins, the evildoer caused and brought about that his precious and elevated soul that is above him will be worn out by the pit below. And how difficult is death for the one who has not separated desires of the world from his soul until it is separated by death! And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said in Tractate Derekh Erets, "Is your will not to die? Die before you die." The explanation of the matter is [that] the one that wants that the day of his death be [a gateway] for him to eternal life should speak to his heart - since his end is to leave the ground and to leave the matters of the body, and in his end, he will despise them and abandon them; he should leave them when he is [still] alive, and only use the ground for service to the Creator, may He be blessed. And then the day of death will be [the beginning] of life without end for him.

And likewise should he put fasts, tears and abstaining himself from delights in the place of afflictions - as it is stated (Psalms 109:24), “My knees give way from fasting; my flesh is lean, has lost its fat.” And it is stated (Joel 2:12), “Turn back to Me with all your hearts, and with fasting, weeping, and lamenting.” And he should always sigh from the bitterness of his heart, as we mentioned in the first Gate about repentance. And he will place the abundance of bitterness in the place of afflictions, as it is stated (Proverbs 18:14), “A man’s spirit can sustain (yekhalkel) him through illness; but low spirits - who can bear them?” The explanation is that when the body becomes sick, the soul will sustain it [during ] its sickness - from the usage (in Malachi 3:2),“But who can bear (mekhalkel) the day of his coming?” [Here] it means to say - help the body and sustain it by speaking to its heart and comforting it to accept [difficulties] and to carry [them]. But when the soul is sick and low from grief and worry, who will console the soul, and who will hold it up and sustain it? Behold, worry and bitterness of the heart are heavier than sickness of the body - for the soul sustains the body in its sickness; whereas when the soul is sick and low from its grief, the body will not sustain it.
So if you find the sinner suffering, [with] troubles happening to him, justifying his judgement and accepting the rebuke with love - this will be a shield for him from the many afflictions that would be fit to come upon him. [It is] as it is stated (Psalms 76:11), “The rage of men shall acknowledge You, when You gird on the remnant of fury.” Its explanation is, when the pain of a man acknowledges You - meaning that a man acknowledges You at the time of his pain. It is from the usage (Job 6:2), “If my anger were surely weighed” - the meaning [of anger, like rage in Psalms 76:11,] is pain. “The remnant of fury” that had been opened to come upon the man - like the content of (I Kings 20:11), “Let not him who girds on his sword boast like him who opens it!” - gird and hold them back and do not bring them upon him. And this is by way of a comparison to one who opens his sword, but [then] returns it to its sheath. And it is stated (Isaiah 12:1), “Although You were wroth with me, Your wrath has turned back and You comfort me.” And likewise about the matter of acknowledgement for the good, it is stated (Psalms 52:11), “I praise You forever, for You have acted; I will hope in Your name, for it is good, in the presence of Your faithful ones.” Its explanation is - I will praise You for the good that You have done with me; and because of this, I will hope for the constancy of Your goodness. And it is stated (Psalms 116:13), “I will raise the cup of slavations and call out in the name of the Lord”; (Psalms 116:3-4) “I came upon trouble and sorrow. And I invoked the name of the Lord.”
And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said (Midrash Tehillim 79) about the matter of that which is written (Psalms 3:1), “A song of David, when he fled,” “‘Justice done is a joy to the righteous’ (Proverbs 21:15) - the trait of the righteous is to pay their debts and to sing to the Holy One, blessed be He. [There is a relevant] parable about a housholder that had a sharecropper, and that sharecropper was in debt to him. That sharecropper [then] made a threshing floor [from his produce], gathered it together and made a pile. The householder came and took the pile, and the sharecropper entered his house empty-handed. But he was happy that he entered empty-handed. They said to him, ‘You left your threshing floor with your hands on your head (empty), and you are happy?’ He said to them, ‘Even so, the bill is [now] cancelled; I have paid my debt.’”