Snow of Gehinnom and the Twofold Garments of Israel

"She is not afraid for her household because of snow, for all her household are clothed in scarlet" (Proverbs 31:21). Hezekiah said: The judgment of the wicked in Gehinnom is twelve months — six months in the heat and six months in the cold. At the beginning the Holy One, blessed be He, brings upon them an itching, and they say, "This is the Gehinnom of the Holy One, blessed be He." And afterward He takes them out into the snow, and they say, "This is the cold of the Holy One, blessed be He." At the beginning they say "Wah," and in the end they say "Woe." That is what David said: "He brought me up out of the pit of tumult, out of the miry clay" (Psalms 40:3) — from the place where they say "Wah" and "Woe." And where do they meet their end? Rabbi Yehudah Berabbi says: In the snow. This is what is written, "When Shaddai scattered kings in it, it snowed in Zalmon" (Psalms 68:15). The snow is their Zalmon. Could it be that Israel too is so? Scripture teaches, saying, "for all her household are clothed in scarlet" — circumcision and uncovering, tzitzit and tefillin, "you shall surely furnish him" (Deuteronomy 15:14), "you shall surely give" (Deuteronomy 15:10), "you shall surely open" (Deuteronomy 15:11), "you shall surely tithe" (Deuteronomy 14:22). Therefore Moses admonishes Israel, "you shall surely tithe."