It is well-known that the verse says in Mishlei that “Even a punishment is not good for a righteous man” and Chazal explain that this means that a person who is the cause of somebody else being punished will not be brought inside the area of Hashem. One who punishes and curses to the extent that someone is killed because of his curse, has committed many evils. One is that maybe that person would have had a righteous son. Secondly, whenever a wicked man is in pain the Divine Presence is also in pain. That which we find that Chazal say that “He (a righteous man) looked at him (an evil man) and he became a pile of bones”, means only that they concentrated on the idea that if he is evil and deserves death and Hashem wants it, the intent should help to carry it out. If not, however, he should not die.
Since this matter is so important, it is correct that a person should forgive all other people, and ask for mercy that no-one else should be punished because of him. There is also another reason for which it is correct to ask for mercy so that others will not be punished because of him, as if a person would be punished because of him, it would only be with great difficulty that he would be able to hold himself back from transgressing that which the Torah says that “Do not rejoice at the fall of your enemy”, and it says further that “one who rejoices at a punishment will not be forgiven”. Even if he himself manages not to sin, it is possible that his friend will not be saved from the sin of suspecting the innocent, as he will suspect that his friend of being happy at his downfall. It follows that one who curses his friend and seeks bad for him causes bad to come to himself.
In the same way that one who accuses his friend of having done something will himself be punished first, so too if one seeks that his friend be punished because he sinned they will accuse him in heaven that he himself is fitting for punishment for his own sins. On the other hand, one who overcomes his own character-traits will have all of his sins forgiven.
