Musar do Hioba 18:22

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.

A man like this would suffice to destroy the whole world if he had the ability. For the intellect does not rule over him in the least. He has literally lost his reason just like all the predatory beasts. On him it is written: "you who tears his soul in his anger; shall the earth become forsaken because of you?" (Job 18:4). Certainly, he can easily transgress any sort of sin in the world to which his rage leads him, for he has no other power moving him other than his anger and will go wherever it takes him.

And this is the language of the holy Zohar (Parshath Tetzaveh) on the verse (Isaiah 2:22): "Leave off from the man asher neshamah be'apo, ki bameh nechshav hu." Here, the Holy One Blessed be He has commanded a man and warned him to guard himself against those men who have inclined their ways from the way of good to the way of evil and who have defiled themselves with that uncleanliness of the sitra achara ["the other side"]. And how shall a man know how to distinguish between one he should draw near to and one he should separate from? By his anger itself he can know that man and distinguish him [from the other]. If he guards his holy soul when his anger comes upon him, not to uproot it from its place and repose in its stead a foreign god — that is the man who is worthy, etc. And if he does not guard it, but uproots this celestial holiness from its place and reposes in its place the sitra achara ["the other side"], then certainly that is the man who rebels against his Master, and it is forbidden to draw near to him or to befriend him. And this is the intent of (Iyyov 18:4): 'Toref nafsho be'apo,' viz. He tears [toref] and uproots his soul because of his anger [be'apo] and reposes within himself a foreign god. And concerning this it is written: 'Leave off from the man asher neshamah be'apo" — whose soul [he tears] in his wrath [be'apo], whose soul he exchanges in his wrath [for a foreign god], ki bameh nechshav hu. With what [bameh] is that man to be distinguished? He is to be accounted a worshipper of idolatry [bamah, an altar to idolatry (like 'bameh'), etc.]"