We are taught to be the masters of acceptance. All that G-d does is for the best, Judaism teaches us repeatedly. Yet we do not become comfortable with death, internally we do not accept it. When Jacob was faced with the tragic death of his precious son Joseph, the Torah tells us, “Vayimaen lihisnachem” (Breishis 37), he refused to be comforted. Some understand that to mean that he had an inkling that his son was really alive, and he was indeed right. Others say that this is a general rule for the Jewish approach to refuse to be comforted or to accept the “reality” of death, because our loved ones are never really dead. Yes, the body is buried and that is very tragic and painful. Yet if we used 3 words to describe our departed loved one it would rarely describe their body. Kindness, thoughtfulness or happiness are not properties of the body they are expressions of the soul. The soul doesn't die when the body is buried and we instinctively know that and therefore refuse to ac...
If G-d appeared to you and asked you how long you would like to live, what would you say? 100 years? 130 years? Would you make any conditions like: but they need to be healthy years? The Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, chose to bless one of his greatest followers Rabbi Yekusiel Liepler, with long life. The Chassid qualified the blessing and said that he was only willing to accept it if it would be infused with spiritual vitality for without that the years were empty and meaningless to him In Genesis Adam died at age 930, Noah was almost 500 when he started building the ark (not bad!) and Methuselah lived a world record of 969 years! Are you jealous? Would you like to live 900 years? What would you do with that time? We study and marvel at centenarians. We ask them for their secrets and diets, lifestyles and habits. I find it very intriguing that some of the greatest in our history like Amadeus Mozart or Rabbi Isaac Luria, the greatest Kabbalist of all ...
Gifted souls enter this world and shine. All that surround them bathe in their light and their beauty. And when they are gone, their light is missed. Challenged souls enter, stumble and fall. They pick themselves up and fall again. Eventually, they climb to a higher tier, where more stumbling blocks await them. Their accomplishments often go unnoticed—although their stumbling is obvious to all. But by the time they leave, new paths have been forged, obstacles levelled, and life itself has gained a new clarity for all those yet to enter. Both are pure souls, of the essence of the divine. But while the gifted shine their light from Above, the challenged meet the enemy on its own ground. Any real change in this world is only on their account. Menachem Mendel Bluming, RTF and Chabad.org