Haye Sarah: The Rights of Mourning

By Victor Bibi ChayeiSarah

Moving Spiritual Garments

In this week's perasha, Abraham came to both eulogize Sarah and to cry. Death implies the departure from the body of the basic elements of life. The spiritual life force known as the soul of man can attain up to five levels or grades - נפש רוח נשמה חיה יחידה - Each of these is housed in celestial garments called a צלם - Selem. When a person passes from this world any of the general upper grades he merited to attain detach from him completely.

The spiritual clothing of the lowest level of נפש - contains three aspects called צלם דנפש - They are in ascending order;  the צ׳ which houses the lowest aspect of the נפש called הבל דגרמי - ; the ל׳ם which houses the upper aspects or מקיפיםof the נפש - R. HaAri explains (SM Vayehi) that upon the passing of an individual the צ׳ remains with the body and is taken with it for burial and the ל׳ם leave the body and remain in the home of the departed. Without the benefit of the upper garments and corresponding life forces or the ל׳ם - the צ׳ and the body are subject to extreme access by the negative forces - hence retaining the name - the father of impurity.

According to the Talmud (MK 27) - Three days of שבעה - are reserved for בכיה - crying and the latter four for הספד or eulogy. Via the crying - the spiritual garment expressed as the ל׳ of the צלם - detaches itself from the house of mourning and moves to re-associate itself with the צ׳ -  offering it needed protection. Via the final four days of הספד - the מ׳ will do the same with its elevated garments and corresponding life force. At that point - it is incumbent to place a מצבה - at the gravesite.

This will act in the form of the physical vessel to hold these surrounding lights of ל׳ם - of the צלם דנפש - One must keep in mind that an event such as the death of an individual has far reaching consequence beyond that of protecting the departed. Hence the Sages (SAN - 46-47) conclude that (crying and) eulogizing is for the "honor" of both the dead and living. It is apparent from their words and that of R. HaAri that these acts of mourning which have an influence on the movement of the ל׳ם of the צלם also benefit the living relatives and the correlated place within the Divine Presence that is associated with the soul of one who has passed. We will also suggest that when the righteous pass away - the acts of mourning incumbent upon the populace assists in retaining aspects of the upper צלמים - that the departed attained through a lifetime of holy service. We hope to address how the next generation benefited from the upper צלמים of Sarah thru an exegesis of the verses related to her death and associated statements in the Talmud.

What Occurs to the Living at the Passing of a Relative

The Talmud (Shabbat 106) teaches that if one dies in the family then the whole family must be concerned for their own welfare. R. HaAri teaches that this pertains especially to close relatives who are also subject to the temporary lose of aspects of their own צלם and hence must adhere to the rules of אבלות - These laws are put in place to reflect his temporary lose of his own higher form of lights called the צלם דגדלות - and the seven days required for their gradual return.

On the first day his spiritual stature is said to be exclusively that of קטנות - immaturity - hence he refrains from even wearing Tefillin which is reflective of a spiritual maturity or that of גדלות - As the days of שבעה proceed he merits daily to reintroduce one of seven aspects of גדלות - Parenthetically we know that when one is (seriously) ill - it is a sign that aspects of his צלם have begun to detach from himself. In the סדור רש״ש it details how one can assist this חולה via the ceremony of פדיון נפש - According to the Siddour - 160 silver כסף coins are given as צדקה by the חולה - They are first used by a חכם in the פדיון in order to attempt to sweeten and bring back the צלם that had detached.

כסף is used as its numerical value is 160 as the amount of coins used and that of צלם - The coins are set out in a manner that parallel and arouse five Divine names associated with the lost צלם - The חכם should meditate to draw down unto the חולה - the sweetened spiritual lights. 

The Shehina also Experiences a Parallel Loss

R. HaAri teaches (LT Vayehi) that we all have our roots in the שכינה above - So that when a person passes away - the Divine Presence itself loses its parallel upper garments and lights or the ל׳ם of its own צלם - These lights will return so to say to the Divine Presence via the crying and eulogizing of the נפטר.

What Happened to the Upper Celestial Garments of Sarah at Her Passing

It is admittedly irresponsible to ignore the fact that the Torah teaches the rules of crying and eulogizing the death of Sarah and juxtaposing it to the birth of Rivka. R. HaAri writes that the higher צלמים of רוח ונשמה ... - go to a place befitting them. Though not specified exactly where - I would like to assert that these garments (or those that are given the שכינה - see above) can via these mourning acts be made accessible by the צדיקים - of the next generation.

According to the Midrash - Sarah dies immediately after עקידת יצחק - The Torah however records her death only after inserting verses on a seemingly unrelated topic concerning the family of נחור - Based on the words ויגד לאברהם ובתואל ילד את רבקה - the Midrash (BR 56-57) teaches that Abraham received via רוח הקודש - that at that very moment רבקה - was born and will be a bride to יצחק - It appears to me that Abraham would have to retain the upper צלמים departing garments of Sarah via the acts of הספד and בכיה - to remain below for his future daughter in law.

This, I believe, is the secret of the Midrash (BR 60:15) that when Sarah died the lights which lit her tent from Shabbat eve to Shabbat eve and that which blessed her dough departed. Furthermore it teaches that the holy clouds which hovered over her tent left. These I believe are codes for the upper צלמיםwhich left at her passing. Avraham sends his servant to find the girl who can merit an attachment (See LT - Toldot re: spiritual relationship between Sarah and Rivka) to these upper spiritual garments that left Sarah. The Torah 24:67 writes that Isaac brought the girl into his mother's tent.

According to the Midrashim (Hagadol - BR 60) the doors of her tent re-opened, the lights returned and blessings came back. According to R. Eleazar (Zohar 1:133) this occurred as Rivka was akin to Sarah in her actions taking on the same spiritual form. With the entrance of Rivka into that tent - the upper צלמים of Sarah had a new home. The Zohar notes that יצחק was able to perceive this phenomenon and hence  וינחם יצחק אחרי אמו - The glory or presence of צלמים now had someone worthy to wear her spiritual garments. 

Retaining the Upper Garments of the Righteous

The Talmud (Shabbat 105 - MK 25) obligates us to cry and eulogize the righteous. In neglect of such a requirement ones children deserve to be buried alive or taken away. If one is lax in mourning - the result can be the departure from this world of these Holy upper spiritual garments. This can חס ושלום - result in ones children not having available elevated garments to hold the higher level souls that he or she attains thereby forcing the child to leave this world.

All are required to mourn the righteous in order to retain the holy garments for the next generation. This apparently is the secret to a teaching of מר in the Talmud (Kid 72) - When R. Akiva died Ribbi was born. When Ribbi died R. Yehuda was born. When R. Yehuda died Rava was born. When Rava died R. Ash'e was born. To teach you that a righteous person does not depart from the world until another person "like him" is created.

Apparently "like him" might connote someone who merits the spiritual garments of the previous righteous one. Apparently it is specifically the righteous who attain lofty spiritual levels of soul and thereby merit these higher צלמים in their lifetime. 

Summary

The rituals associated with death are vast and all have deep spiritual significance. Some are to protect those who passed and others are to safeguard those who are living. Furthermore what we have surmised here is that the acts of mourning not only reflect the lower צלם - that has been lost - but can be the vehicles to have the upper garments that had left the departed - remain so that the next generations צדיקים - can thereby benefit from them.

This we assert is the reason the Torah juxtaposed the death of Sarah - the birth of Rivka - with the mourning rites of Abraham. All of this to realize that Sarah's upper צלמים found a home in Rivka. This spiritual reality was perceived by Yishak and hence was comforted in that these garments belonging to his mother now rested upon his wife.