You should be a
Meilitz Yoshor is usually the parting request made by each speaker to the
recently deceased at his funeral.
He’s gone only a
few hours and we asking him for favors already.
And what are we asking
for exactly?
Reduced to its
lowest common denominator, we are essentially putting in a bid for proteksia.
The niftar
(recently deceased) will soon be going to a better place and we are asking him
to put in a (good) word for us by way of his tefillos when he gets there. The higher one’s place in Olam Haba the more
influence one is presumed to have. And
the more (presumed) influence the better placed one is to shake things up.
So what are we doing
on our end for an aliyas neshama that will move our loved ones out of their Heavenly
cubicle, so to speak, to a corner office with a view from where they might be
able to exert a little more influence?
Sad to say, not
all that much.
The few dollars
that we give or the learning that we do in the name of the niftar is to be
sure, a little something in the right direction. A nice touch this, but nice touches are not
the stuff of serious elevation.
As with almost
everything else, here too Hashem operates in midda keneged midda mode (measure
for measure).
Want to expand someone’s
horizons in Gan Eden? Then you
have to expand yours in this world in inyanai ruchniyes. Simply put, when you seriously grow you’re a
different you, and you therefore now occupy a different place in this world.
And if you are a
different you who is occupying a different place in this world then you
have made the most compelling argument possible to have the one
you are asking to act as a Meilitz Yosher be put in a position in which he is
better situated to make it happen.
