Sheloshim Reflections

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At the time that unborn twins need to depart, at the end of their nine months

in their mother’s womb, one says to the other:

“My brother, I feel that I am leaving this world, my death is near.

You will now be alone”

And his brother will cry

But when he passes away and leaves the womb and leaves his brother behind

there is a mazal tov on the other side.

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When Rabbi Simcha was near the end of his life and his wife stood

at his bedside crying, he said the following words:

My love, why do you cry? Life was just given so as to know the art how to die.

Passed away on the twelfth day of Elul, 1827

Death is horrible, hard and black
A source of anguish
Our first reaction is consternation
We are dumb and broken
Slowly but surely
Our feeling of dismay makes place for a sentiment of mystery
The Mysterium Magnum
Suddenly life which we believed we knew
Seems to hide behind a veil of the Great Secret
Our speech stops. Our understanding fails
In death there is only silence and an acknowledgement of the Other

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Real life starts long before existence commences
It comes from far
It travels through experience
Growth, suffering, insight and deed
Life is always on the road, also after death.

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In the Torah nobody dies
One is “gathered to one’s forefathers”
“When will your days be fulfilled that you will be with your fathers?”
Does the Neshama become dust?
Will spirit become ashes?
It is only the Neshama which creates immortal words
Art, and thoughts.

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Life is beautiful when it is carried by the body
But still more beautiful is life in the word
The word is greater than the world
Due to the word of the Ribono shel Olam
The world came into being and the universe was created
The Torah is the creation of the word in kedusha
And if a great human being dies
Then the Neshama becomes a word and that word lives in the book of the Creator.

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The righteous even in their death, they are called alive.

Berachoth 18b

Just as there is death while one lives.

So there is life when one has died

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The body is not a jail, but an accommodation. Each accommodation is for a short duration. Only the continual is eternal. Life is the task. Each moment can be a great achievement. Rest comes later, after the achievement, never before or in the middle.

When a righteous person dies, Heaven becomes more beautiful.

For the Righteous it is a privilege to die.
They are going home.