(from a lecture over the weekend)

Those of you who have been around the Centre know we speak of the resurrection of the dead. When you look at the writings of the Kabbalists for thousands of years, you see everybody was talking about it.

One of the great Kabbalists, Rabbi Elimelech of Lejensk — if you read the verse literally — talks about after the death of Aaron’s two sons. Rabbi Elimelech is talking about righteous people, and he is talking about us, about the righteous element of every one of us. We have the ability to change judgment to mercy. Even if, chas v’shalom, a person has upon them the decree of death, if they are supposed to die, a righteous person (the person every one of us should aspire to be) has the ability to remove that power of death.

How does this work? How can you change judgment to mercy, death to life? It’s very important to understand the way this process works.

The world of judgment is the lower world. In the supernal worlds, there is only mercy, Light, fulfillment, love. Righteous people, through the prayers, through the connections we make, elevate our souls to the world where there is no judgment, only mercy. Most of us live in the world of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, where there is good and bad. We have the ability to elevate above this world, to the world where there is only mercy. This is what a righteous person can do.

In that world there is no judgment at all, and no death can come from that true supernal world. A righteous person (the person every one of us should aspire to be) can go to that world, where there is only mercy, and draw that Light and blessing to a person in this world. This is what it says in this week’s Parashah. After the death. That we have the ability to go after death, to destroy, to completely remove death.

How do we do this? By elevating higher toward the Creator, and by going up to the supernal worlds. And through this we can draw down the Light of life.

It’s a lesson that’s exciting on many different levels. But first comes the understanding that no matter what judgment there is in this world, every one of us should aspire to be able to elevate to the upper world, and draw down into our world that world where there is only blessings.

This is what I love — where the Kabbalists completely change the energy. If you read the literal story about the death of the two children of Aaron it’s about their death. We are being told this is not about death. It’s about after death. Acharei Mot, when death will be a memory.

Without the Kabalistic understanding, you will miss the understanding. If you ask everyone who read it literally, it’s about the death of the two children. The Kabbalists say it’s not about death; it’s about after death has been removed.

We don’t have time (looks at his watch), but in one of the letters of Rav Brandwein to the
Rav, he speaks about this. One of the gifts of this week is every single one of us can achieve the power of the Creator.

This power every single one of us can achieve, if we have a true desire to achieve this. Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato, in what he called The Simple Book, based on a teaching from Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair (and I would highly recommend to everyone to read this), explains the different steps we need to go through that we came to this world to do. He explains that every single one of us came to this world to be able to resurrect the dead.

The question every one of us has to ask, as we hear the Torah, is: Is our life moving us in that direction? Do we see that continuing what we are doing will bring us in 5, 10 or 20 years to being able to resurrect the dead, to be Acharei Mot? If the answer is “no,” we have to do something different. That is why we came to this world. Everyone of us has the power of Kedoshim within us.

He talks about the different levels. He says the ultimate level of holiness is a perfect connection with the Creator. This week’s Parashah is giving us the gift to elevate to the level of pure connection to the Light, preparing us for the next level. Every one of us has to ask if our life is leading us toward this level. If the answer is “no,” we have to find a way to do that. Every one of us decides by ourselves what it will be. That’s where the purpose needs to take us.

I would like to end with one section from this week’s Zohar of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the author, the channel for the Light of the Zohar. From the day that the Creator created this world, the soul and the Light that will be revealed by Rabbi Shimon was with the Creator. And the Creator called him, Rabbi Shimon. The Creator knew before He created this world what the purpose of every one of our lives would be — that pure connection to the Light of the Creator. But He gave us the gift of the Zohar and the soul of Rabbi Shimon to be able to get there.

We said we know our lives have to lead toward resurrection of the dead. And every one of us has to decide what we need to change. The only thing we know for sure is that it has to involve the power of the soul of Rabbi Shimon and the Zohar. The Creator knew there would be the necessity for Rabbi Shimon and the Light in the Zohar to allow us to make our lives what they should be about: the resurrection of the dead.