QUESTION:
What should a person think when going, lo aleinu, to Tanchumei Avelim?
ANSWER:
He's going to say to them words, he mumbles the words Hamakom Yenachem Eschem; unfortunately he doesn't think what he's saying and they don't think what he's saying, but these are very important words. He's saying we're all aveilim, we're all aveilim! We're mourning for Yerushalayim. How can we be happy if Yerushalayim is in the hands of gentiles, the Bais Hamikdash is not in existence, the Malchus Bais Dovid is not there, the Shechina departed from us, we're all mourning. It's a very important lesson! So when you console him, after all you say tzoras raabim chatzi nechama, if everybody else is suffering, so your suffering is just part of the natural universal suffering of our Nation, we're all sad.
Now it says, tov laleches el bais eivel mei'leches el beis mishteh, it's better to go to the house of an avel than to go to a wedding. You go to a wedding, some people come out of the wedding drunk, and some come out confused, wasting time, leitsonus; of course it doesn't have to be that way, but it could be. When you go to a house of an avel, v'hachai yiten el libo, you learn the lesson of life that this world is only a prosdor lifnei ha'olam habah, this world is only a vestibule, a lobby before the world to come. That's a tremendous lesson that no matter how many times you hear the lesson, it's not enough. It's a tremendous lesson, that we're in this world only to prepare for our career, our main career is only in the world to come. So as you walk out of the house of the avel, you're thinking, from now on I'm going to get busy! As long as I can still walk, I can still talk, I'm going to accomplish something for myself as long as I'm still alive.
Now pay attention to the next thought: When you walk out of the house of the avel, hachai yiten el libo, you should think how lucky I am that I'm alive, and breathe deeply. Ahhhh, it's a pleasure to breathe air, pleasure to see the sunlight, tov l'einyaim liros es hashemesh, a pleasure to be alive, the happiness of life. When you go out of the bais avel get a new lease of life, a new understanding of the simchas hachayim. Now most people wouldn't like that idea, you go out of a house of an avel and you gain simcha? But that is one of the great lessons.
If you don't understand how lucky you are that you're alive in this world then you're missing the great lesson of chasdei Hashem.
Good Shabbos To All
This email is transcribed from questions that were posed to Harav Miller by the audience at the Thursday night lectures.
To listen to the audio of this Q & A please dial: 201-676-3210
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Important Numbers
