Why is misas tzaddikim mechaperes, why is it that the death of tzaddikim is a kapara? Why does it atone?
ANSWER:
You must understand, that yakur b'einei Hashem hamuvso l'chasiduv, it's precious in the eyes of Hashem, it's a rarity when you have to sacrifice a righteous man. Now when a righteous passes away, it causes a certain regret among the people, and then even for a moment, people pause to appreciate what they once had. That's the great tzara for human beings. When they have the righteous man they lack to appreciate.
Let's say the Chofetz Chaim when he was alive - certainly there were a lot of people who appreciated him, but very many didn't even bother to think about him, because he's around. After he passed away then the worldbegan to understand the Chofetz Chaim.
I once went into visit in a shiva house where a local Rov passed away and his son was sitting shiva. And his son told me, now he appreciates his father... a little too late.
That's what misas tzaddikim has to accomplish, people should know what they missed. It's a pity. Had they understood what they had when he was still around, it would be a bigger kapara. Believe me, if people would study the tzaddikim that are alive, it would be a much bigger kapara, but since they don't unfortunately, they say look, "he's a human being like I am, I yawn he yawns, I have to sleep he has to sleep, so what's so great about him? He has teeth and I have teeth, he looks exactly like me, so there's nothing to him!" Because people are so shallow. We are, we are bemused, we are influenced by externalities.
The Gemara reports about Moshe Rabbeinu, people said look how thick are his thighs, that's the way to look at Moshe Rabbeinu...Kamo uvim shokuv, look how fat his thighs are. You know, Moshe Rabbeinu was a muscular man, he was a big man, he was a heavy man, a giant man. So some people said, look how thick are his thighs, he eats well. Ohhh! Now they didn't say that, don't think they said that, but it was a thought that floated through their minds; he's a human being. That's how people are; that's a tragedy. If they could rise to understand Moshe Rabbeinu while he was alive, they'd get the full benefit, but after Moshe passed away it says vayiviku, the whole nation wept for thirty days.
Oh, now they wept for thirty days, that's a pity, but it's mechaperes however. Now we begin to understand something, that's a kapara for everybody, it's an atonement, everybody is supposed to get better. That's why it's such a great thing to make hespedim on tzaddikim, so people should appreciate them, they should come and listen and learn the lessons.
That's one of the ideas of misas tzaddikim mechaperes.
Good Shabbos To All
This 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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