Can the Dead be Alive?

Shabbat Chukat 5767

This past week we commemorated Gimmel Tammuz, the thirteenth Yahrzeit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

For Lubavitcher Chassidim, and for many others as well, the Rebbe is still very much alive - not only in Gan Eden (Paradise) but here on earth as well.

On the surface this seems blasphemous. Surely the Rebbe died, and is buried in the Montefiore Cemetry in Queens, New York?

The gain some understanding of this:

The Talmud quotes a sage who said that "our forefather Jacob didn't die".

Immediately the Talmud poses a question:

"Was it for nothing that the eulogizers, eulogized him; that the embalmers, embalmed him; that the gravediggers buried him?"

Rashi then makes an astounding comment. He says, "it appeared to them as if he died".

"Appeared to them as if he died"? Does he mean that he is really still alive, that the entire burial procedure was a hoax? Surely not!

The key to understanding this, is an understanding of what life really is.

For a person for whom life is the next gourmet meal, the next pair of stylish shoes, creature comforts and luxuries - life ceases with utter finality at the grave. With the end of the body comes the end of life - quite literally.

Not so for a person for whom life's purpose is to inspire and teach wisdom and understanding, faith and hope, love, wonder and awe. For such a person the grave is no end at all.

On the contrary: with the passing of the body, the soul is now freer than ever to reach out to people for whom distance and other physical barriers were previously a barrier. The life mission of such a person does not end with the grave - on the contrary it can now reach new heights previously unattainable. Not in Paradise - but here on Earth. For as a true leader, his entire concern was never himself and the spiritual heights he could achieve. Rather his interest was what he could give, teach and inspire others here on earth to do. And that is a mission that can continue with ever greater vigour after the death of the body.

Yes, it is true, that the body was "eulogized, embalmed and buried" - but for a Tzaddik, that does not spell death but renewed life.

Let me conclude with a quote from the Tanya, written by the first Lubavitcher Rebbe:

The Zohar states that "When the tzaddik departs, he is to be found in all worlds, more than during his lifetime." Now this needs to be understood. For, granted that he is to be found increasingly in the supernal worlds, because he ascends to there; but how is he found more in this world?

... As is known, the life of a tzaddik is not a physical life but a spiritual life, consisting wholly of faith, awe, and love of G-d... While the tzaddik was alive on earth, these three attributes were contained in their physical vessel and garment [ --the body] on the plane of physical space... his disciples received but a reflection of these attributes, a ray radiating beyond this vessel by means of his holy utterances and thoughts... But after his passing... whoever is close to him can receive a [far loftier dimension] of these three attributes, since they are no longer confined within a [material] vessel, nor bounded by physical space...

Rabbi Benzion Milecki OAM