You Shall Fear My Temple

The Scent of Gan Eden Parshas Korach The devastating news traveled quickly: the Rebbe had passed away. his youngest brother! I hereby oppose him and will invalidate his It happened during the winter of 1957. The Rebbe - Yochanan of word “ Karlin, had died while in the US. Similarly, “Rabbi Elazar HaKapor would say: Envy, lust and honor Just a year before, he had made an extensive visit to the Holy Land, drive a man from the world.” However, we have met envious and then traveled back to the US. His followers in Israel felt very individuals who are still alive? The truth is that their lives are not connected to him, and bitterly mourned his passing. livable, because they find no peace. His followers began to search for a burial plot for him in Israel, while In the Talmud we read: “Certain diggers were digging in Rav his congregation in the US wanted him buried near them. Nachman's ground, when Rav Achai ben Josiah, who was buried there, snorted at them. So they went and told Rav Nahman, "A man The leading figures in the US decided to bury him in the US. I will not snorted at us." Rav Nachman went and asked him, "Who are you?’ "I forget the time of the funeral, during which my father Rabbi Yisroel am Achai ben Josiah," he replied. Grossman, sat on the ground and wept inconsolably. "But did not Rav Mari say: Even the righteous are fated to be dust?’ After the Shiva concluded, his followers in Israel decided to mobilize Rav Nachman asked. "But who is Mari," Rav Achai retorted "I do not and have him reburied in Israel. The US congregation turned them know him." Yet surely a verse is written, ‘and the dust returns to the down. Both sides agreed to approach a Beis Din for a ruling to settle earth as it was’? Rav Nachman urged. "He who taught you the dispute. Ecclesiastes did not teach you Proverbs," Rav Achai answered, "for it is written, But envy is the rottenness of the bones: he who has envy The deliberations were long and deliberate, and the tensions in his heart, his bones rot away. [but] he who has no envy in his between the sides were high. Rabbi Ephraim Zalman Halpern, who heart, his bones do not rot away." was in his 90s at the time, came to court to give testimony. The Ohr Hachayim comments, that when a righteous person is alive He told the religious court that during the Rebbe's stay in Israel, he in this world he turns the profane into the holy through Torah and met with him, and he explicitly told him of his wish to be buried in good deeds, and therefore does not really die. Israel. “You should know that I want to be buried in the Land of Israel, and when the time comes remember my words,” the Rebbe Therefore, the righteous person who has no envy in him in this said. world, and aspires only to holiness, his bones do not rot and it is if as he is living, even after death. At the time, Reb Halpern did not fully understand the extent of the *** Rebbe’s words and forgot them, but after hearing about the court When the Rebbe's body arrived in Israel a disagreement erupted proceedings he understood that he was given a mission. between his followers and the undertakers whether to bury him again in the same coffin he was buried in the US or if to bury him in Everyone accepted his words and decided to rebury the Rebbe in a Tallit, as is the custom in Israel. There was a fear that the opening Israel. of his coffin would be as a desecration of the dead. A year after his initial burial, he was flown to Israel for burial. A day Leading rabbis in Israel were asked on the matter, including my of mourning and fasting was declared, while all prepared for the mentor the Lelover Rebbe, Rabbi Moshe Mordechai, who decisively reburial. ruled: there is nothing to fear. The righteous are considered alive *** even after their death, as well as their bodies. In our weekly parsha we read of the downfall of Korach and his group. Korach, who lacked nothing and was extremely wealthy, lost My father was one of few who tended his body. He suggested that everything in a flash. they open the coffin just a bit, and if all is proper they can proceed. When they sawed away at the coffin a bit of the shrouds This was a result of his jealousy, as Rashi quotes the Midrash whish surrounding the Rebbe's foot were torn away, expose a complete says: “What made Korach decide to quarrel with Moshe? He envied foot. the chieftainship of Elizaphan the son of Uzziel whom Moshe appointed as chieftain over the sons of Kehath by the Divine word. The Rebbe was then placed on a stretcher and carried out as if he Korach claimed, “My father and his brothers were four. Amram was had just passed away. This was well publicized and brought to the the first, and his two sons received greatness - one a king and one a strengthening in the belief in the righteous. Kohen Gadol. Who is entitled to receive the second position? Is it not I, who am the son of Yitzhar, who is the second brother to I will never forget father exiting the morgue and saying: "Ahh, the Amram? And yet, Moshe appointed to the chieftainship the son of scent of Gan Eden." .

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