The Secret of the Soul of Chanoch: Why Tzaddikim Pass Away in Their Youth and the Secret of the Shiva Days
Shiur No. 202 | Monday, Parashas Ki Seitzei, 4 Elul 5759 - Comforting Mourners in Bnei Brak
A moving and profound discourse explaining the secret of the histalkus (passing away) of pure souls at a young age, based on the secret of the soul of Chanoch, who became an angel. The Rav explains how the days of Shiva (seven days of mourning) for a tzaddik are not days of mourning, but rather an illumination of Gan Eden (Paradise) in the world. Just as we cry down here below, up in Heaven they are celebrating a chuppah and kiddushin (marriage canopy and betrothal) for the soul.
Forty days before the formation of a child, even before conception, everything is announced in Heaven: "The daughter of so-and-so to so-and-so, the house of so-and-so, the field of so-and-so." They announce where the apartment will be, how many rooms it will have, from what work the person will earn their parnassah (livelihood), and how many years they will live. Everything is planned in advance, even before the person comes into the world.
When the soul is in Heaven, before its descent, it chooses which family to be born into. It can choose the most righteous father and the most righteous mother. This soul, which we merited to know, chose to leave this world clean of any sin. It chose a father who learns Torah all day and a righteous mother, a holy and pure family, in order to accomplish all of its tikkunim (spiritual rectifications) in the world without any blemish.
The Soul of Chanoch: Remaining a Pure Youth
The holy Zohar discusses the secret of the soul of Chanoch. It is said, "Educate a youth according to his way; even when he grows old, he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6). The explanation is that even when Chanoch grew old, he remained with the form of a youth. He always remained in the form of an innocent and pure child who knows nothing of the vanities of this world.
Such a child does not understand what is wanted from him in this world. He sees highways, roads, people flying by in cars every day, and he asks: Where is everyone traveling to? After all, there is Gemara, there is Torah, what more is there to do? His entire desire was only to finish the Book of Tehillim (Psalms), to travel to the Kosel (Western Wall) and to Meron. This is a soul of Chanoch, a soul that possesses the "Zihara Ila'ah" (the Supernal Light), and it only yearns and longs for Hashem.
He wanted absolute order in his service of Hashem. To wake up on time, to go to sleep on time, to serve Hashem without any interruptions. There is no such child in the entire country, in any yeshiva. This is a soul that was engaged in the tikkun (rectification) of the world.
The Shliach Tzibbur (Emissary of the Congregation) of the Generation
We must be ashamed before such a soul. It was our shliach tzibbur; it ascended in our place and departed from the world to atone for us. Whoever was by his bedside in the last two months saw an unparalleled merit and purity. He lay there without letting out a sigh, without complaining, "Why specifically me? Why do I have to lie here with IVs and needles?"
He only wanted to get to the yeshiva. I told him, "Do not worry, you will get to the yeshiva. Special chavrusas (study partners) will come to you from Heaven." His soul felt that it could no longer remain here. Everything it went through, all of this suffering, was only for us.
The Secret of Early Histalkus
The holy Zohar explains that anyone who passes away as a youth, it is a sign that the soul of Chanoch impregnated itself within him. Chanoch lived for three hundred and sixty-five years, which was considered a very young age in those generations, when people lived for nine hundred years. He was the first of the tzaddikim to pass away after Adam HaRishon (the First Man).
When they saw that Chanoch passed away suddenly at such a young age, everyone was terrified. They asked, "What happened here? What sin did he commit that God took him?" But the truth was the exact opposite.
"And Chanoch walked with God, and he was no more, for God had taken him" (Genesis 5:24).
He reached such perfection that he transformed into the angel Metatron. When a person reaches the peak of perfection, they say in Heaven, "Every minute in this world, people can harm you; it is better that we take you now." Therefore, all the pure and innocent children who pass away as youths are in the aspect of Chanoch, taken from the world because of their immense holiness.
The Secret of the Shiva Days: Seven Days of Gan Eden
There is an immense secret that one must know: When a tzaddik passes away, the seven days of mourning are actually seven days in which the world is given a taste of Gan Eden.
The Gemara in Tractate Sanhedrin tells of the generation of the Flood. Noach announced that on the 10th of Cheshvan, a flood would descend. Everyone knew about it. People prepared deep shelters, fled to the high mountains, and even tried to plug the springs with their giant feet. But when the 10th of Cheshvan arrived, the sun shone, everything blossomed, and the fragrant scent of roses from Gan Eden filled the world. Such Divine pleasantness had not existed since the creation of the world. People woke up in the morning, smelled the fragrances of Gan Eden, and laughed at Noach: "He is a false prophet! What flood?"
But the truth was that the tzaddik Mesushelach (Methuselah) passed away on that day. Hashem delayed the Flood by seven days in honor of the seven days of mourning for Mesushelach, and during those days, the entire Earth entered into the space of Gan Eden. This teaches you that the passing of tzaddikim nullifies harsh decrees, and the seven days of Shiva are days of the illumination of Gan Eden.
The passing of a tzaddik is a chuppah (wedding canopy) in Heaven
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov brings this foundational concept in Likutey Moharan (Torah 21). He explains that with every passing of a tzaddik, the seven days are not days of mourning at all, but rather seven days of Gan Eden (Paradise). Rebbe Nachman delivered this Torah during the period when his young daughter Feiga passed away, and he revealed within it awesome secrets about the Surrounding Lights (Ohr HaMakifim) and the yearnings for Hashem.
Rebbe Nachman teaches that passing away and kiddushin (betrothal) are the exact same thing. While here below everyone sits on the ground and cries, in Heaven it is a wedding!
"When a tzaddik departs from the world, three groups of ministering angels go out to greet him... and they say to him: 'Let him enter in peace, let them rest on their resting places'."
From every single letter of Torah that he learned with pure and clear speech, an angel was created. And now, for seven days, the angels go out to greet him as shoshvinim (groomsmen), with wedding canopies, dancing, and orchestras. The soul is in Heaven and it is only dancing, rejoicing, and happy. The soul wants you to rejoice with it, to taste the flavor of the World to Come, and to feel its joy. It surrounds us now, and we must know that it is located in the highest possible place, in the aspect of Yechidah (the highest level of the soul), where there is absolutely nothing besides Hashem.
Part 2 of 2 — Lesson No. 202
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