Our Neshamos Agreed to Everything that Happens in our Lives
The medrash says, “Greater is the fear of being born than the fear of death.” Fear of death is the fear of the unknown, and the fear of being born is a greater unknown for the neshamah. So the Ribbono Shel Olam, in His great mercy, wants to make it a little easier for us. Chazal tell us that He sends a malach, and the malach gives us a tour of the world.
The neshamah is shown everything – marriages, homes, all the phases of life, ad zibulo basraysa, until the last shovel of earth. After the neshamah is given its tour of the world and is told, “This is your mission, this is your job, this is the reason you are down here,” the neshamah comes back up to Shamayim, and HaKaddosh Baruch Hu asks, “Do you understand your mission?”
The neshamah responds, “Yes.”
“You realize you have to be born; that’s the purpose of creation?”
“Okay.”
“You know, I showed you everything beforehand, and I explained it to you?”
“Right.”
And Hashem, so to speak, takes a contract, and tells the neshamah, “Here, everything is spelled out in the contract. I want you to sign that you knew about this beforehand.” The neshamah signs. We come down to this world.
After 120 years, we come back up to Shamayim, and the neshamah says, “Ribbono Shel Olam, how could You have done this to me?”
HaKaddosh Baruch Hu answers, “Sheifele, I showed it to you beforehand, and you signed on it!”
There is a plan on this world. Nothing that happens is random or by chance. And furthermore, everything that happens to us is essential to our neshamah’s ability to fulfill its mission.
(Rabbi Fishel Schachter. To Comfort and Be Comforted, Chevrah Lomdei Mishnah Publications, pages 53-54)
We agreed to our lives here before we were brought down to this world because our neshamos clearly saw how every aspect of our lives would be for our spiritual benefit.
Take This Home
The next time something unexpected, inconvenient or difficult happens today, reroute your reaction and tell yourself, “Hashem planned it this way, and I agreed to this because it’s what my neshamah needs.”
In Short
The living do not feel the tremendous anguish of the departed – how he cries and bemoans his deeds. At that moment, he says to himself, “If only I would have some opportunity to correct my actions!”
Chafetz Chayim in Shem Olam, ch. 7 (as quoted in The Neshamah Should Have an Aliyah by Rabbi Tzvi Hebel, Judaica Press, page 29)
It Happened to Me!
My Olam Haba Moment
My ten-year-old daughter voiced her dismay about the behavior of some of the girls in her bunk.
Apparently, they were planning to present their counselors with an envelope that appeared to contain tips from their parents but was actually empty.
One of my daughter’s friends told her she thought it was a funny joke. I was very proud of my daughter’s response: “You think it’s funny here, but you’re not going to think it’s funny when you get up there [pointing upward].”
C.E.L.
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