<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px; ">[I have extracted and distilled the following from an article by Sara Yoheved Rigler].</span></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 20pt; "><span style="font-size: 14pt; ">The Torah prohibits verbally oppressing a widow or an orphan. (Exodus 22:21). Rashi comments that the prohibition extends to hurting anyone with words; the Torah specifies widows and orphans only because they are the most commonly recognized sufferers. In fact, the commentators explain, all persons suffer, therefore we must be careful in how we speak to everyone.</span><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; "><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 20pt; "><span style="font-size: 14pt; ">This insight, that we must refrain from speaking harshly to all because we do not know their inner anguish, is even more relevant today, given all the tragedies experienced by so many people.</span><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; "><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span style="font-size: 14pt; ">Our sages teach us that our oblivion, our unawareness of the full ramifications of every harsh word and action, lasts only until the day of death. Then every soul stands in judgment and is made to witness, nay experience, the unedited video of his or her own life.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px; ">That is presumably what hell might be: the inner inferno of remorse when we realize the full scope of the injury we have wrought. No external fire can compare in burning intensity to the regret we will each feel when we perceive the suffering we ourselves have caused.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px; ">May we all think before upbraiding others and do our share in lessening the emotional pain and anguish of our fellow human beings.</span></p><div><br></div><div>ri</div></div></body></html>