Kabbalah Pengkhotbah 9:18: Kuntres Mattan Torah

If this is not provoking enough, see the words: “Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon says: Since the world is judged by its majority [depending on whether people have performed a majority of commandments or sins], and an individual is judged by his majority, if he performs one commandment, he is praiseworthy, as he tilts [the balance of] himself and the entire world to the scale of merit. If he transgresses one prohibition, woe to him, as he tilts [the balance of] himself and the entire world to the scale of liability, as is stated, ‘but one sinner…’” (tractate Kiddushin 40b) “destroys much good” (Ecclesiastes 9:18). So, Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, made me a guarantor for the entire world as well! According to his opinion, all the people in the world are guarantors for one another. Each person will bring merit or liability to the entire world. This is doubly confusing.

22. This is where Rabbi Elazar is supported by the verse, “but one sinner destroys much good” (Ecclesiastes 9:18). It is explained above (section 20). The feeling of influence that comes over a person when engaging in the Torah and the commandments between a person and God is completely identical to the feeling of influence that comes over him when he engages in interpersonal commandments; for he is beholden to perform all the commandments for their own sake with no hope of self-love, meaning that there would be no ray of light or hope reaching back to him of receiving a reward, honor or anything else as a result of this effort. At this zenith, the love for God and the love for others truly merge into one (as said in section 15). Thus, he affects a certain measure of progress along the ladder of love for one another in all the people in the world as a whole, for the level that the individual reaches through his actions, be it a greater or smaller step, eventually combines in the future to tilt the world to the balance of merit, for his share was entered and comingled there for the sake of tilting the balance (as said in section 21). Read there carefully about the comparison to one who weighs sesame seeds.