One day is better than a thousand years
On Sunday, October 28th, 2018, as part of Rav Eliezer Berland’s ongoing visits across the country, which see the elderly tzaddik strain every last sinew to try to bring more of Am Yisrael back in teshuva, Rav Berland came to do the mitzvah of comforting mourners.
He came to visit some young men who had recently lost a parent, and told them the following:
“The person’s soul is to be found here, and it can see us. He can see how I’ve come to comfort you, and the rest of the family, in your suffering. On the one hand, everything is now good for him. He’s in a world where everything is good, and he’s now finished her tikkun (spiritual rectification) in this world.
“But, on the hand, we really want for him to be with us – and these two things oppose each other, because his soul has already finished its tikkun, and he has already gone to her [spiritual] world.”
Rav Berland continued:
“King David lived for 70 years, but it’s said that this is considered to be 1,000 years, because in his life, he never slept. He used to stay awake in the nights. He lived three times as much as the rest of the world.
“Because a person spends a third of his time asleep, and another third of his time eating, so then barely an hour or two remains. But David didn’t waste even a single second. David’s 70 years were actually like 210 years – or a thousand years. “Because a thousand years in your eyes is like but a passing day.” (Tehillim 90:4)
“For one day in your courtyard is better than a thousand years.”
“One day with You is better than a thousand years with someone else. You had a father who was such a tzaddik, a husband who was such a tzaddik, that even just one of his days was like a thousand years.”
You can see Rav Berland comforting the mourners in the original Hebrew, above.
