TAKING PEOPLE OUT OF GEHINNOM

 Everyone knows the famous promise of Rabbeinu: that he can take a person out of Gehinnom. But there can be different ways to understand what exactly he was talking about. Do we have to die first in order for his promise to be fulfilled?

In Torah 14 Rabbeinu discusses people who are very far from holiness and so have to undergo a lot of trials in order to come close to Hashem. He calls such people by the term "palga", which means "half" in Aramaic. So these are people who aren't whole and complete, and this can be just as torturous as feeling far from Hashem.

It is interesting that the word "פלגא" has the same gematria as the word "גהינום" ("Gehinnom"). So one way to understand Rabbeinu's promise is that he can and does make people whole, so they can then come close to Hashem. How fortunate we are to have a Rebbe that can help us not only in the Next World but in this one as well!