Striving Higher

PARSHAS VAYECHI 5777

“RABBI’S MUSINGS (&
AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh
Parshas Vayechi
15 Teves 5777/ January 13,
2017
When I was a graduate
student at Fordham University working towards my Masters in Social Work, a fellow
student offered me a piece of advice: If you have the option, try not to have a
professor who is overly passionate about what he/she is teaching. If the
professor’s has dedicated her life to the topic being taught, you will be
expected to share her excitement and the professor will be demanding in her expectations
for the course.
I did have a few
professors who fit into that category. One of them was for a class I took entitled,
“Death and Dying”. It wasn’t about how to die, as that seemingly doesn’t
require any special classes. Rather it was about exploring our own attitudes
and premonitions towards death and dying, so that we can be better prepared to
help clients who are facing tragedy.
It was a very
powerful and emotional course, and it presented us with much to reflect upon.
The professor was a noted author on the topic and this was topic was her
specialty. It is obvious however, that no matter how much expertise one has in
dealing with tragedy, when faced with such moments no one is immune from the
raw pain and feelings of intense loneliness.   
On the final day
of the course, all of us students were asked to stand in a circle with the
professor to share a final reflection. When it was my turn I shared the
following: “Because death has meaning, life has meaning.”
My professor was
very moved by the quip, as were quite a few other students. Although it’s
always nice when others think you are intelligent, to me it was a truism that I
had learned years earlier in yeshiva. Chazal constantly remind us that this
world is merely a preparation for a much greater world, a world of truth and
bliss. As the Mishna states in Avos (4:16): “Prepare yourself in the
antechamber, so that you can enter the banquet hall.”
There is no
other religion that has the same perspective and laws about death as the Torah.
On the one hand, we ascribe such holiness to the body even after it is
deceased, simply because it was the vessel which contained a soul, the
life-spark of G-d. Yet, we also bury the body with simplicity. We do not place
it into an expensive coffin, and we do not gaze at the face of the deceased
once the soul has departed. Holy and special as the body is, it still remains the
mere vessel.
Since time
immemorial, we have always deemed those who engage in the scared work of
burying the dead as “the Chevra Kadisha – the holy group”. The mitzvah of being
involved in bringing a body to proper Jewish burial is so sacred, that it is
one of the greatest merits one can attain. It is the final dignity granted to a
deceased.
The manner in
which the body is purified, and then dressed in shrouds with such dignity, and
reverence, according to the dictates of halacha, is the greatest testimony to
our belief that death is not the finality of life, but rather a major
transition, from one level of life to another.  
Because death has
meaning, all of life – every moment of it, has meaning.
Parshas Vayechi,
contains the Torah’s recording about the death of Yaakov Avinu. Yet, the Torah
never actually states that Yaakov died, only that “he gathered to his people”. What’s
more, the very parsha which contains Yaakov’s death is titled “Yaakov lived”.
Through our good deeds, and through living for a higher purpose, we transcend
the limitations of this world, and live beyond our physical years. In that
sense, Yaakov lives on in all of us.
This Shabbos, our
community is paying tribute to Team Shabbos, a division of the National
Association of Chevra Kadisha. It is an organization dedicated to raising and
promoting awareness of end of life matters according to Halacha.
It is such
awareness that reminds us that because death is sacred and has meaning, our
entire lives are sacred and has meaning.
Although we hope
to not need their services, it is reassuring to know that they are always there
for us.
Shabbat Shalom
& Good Shabbos,

            R’ Dani and Chani Staum       

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