Every Sunday morning at 10 am EST there will be a 10-15 min Mishnayous class in English given in honor of Mommy/Bubby.
If you would like to participate in hearing the class please email me or text me so that I can send you the dial in number.
Jewish tradition has always firmly stressed the immortality of the soul, and the existence of life in the Hereafter. When a soul departs from this world, the body returns to the earth from whence it came, while the soul endures for eternity in the World to Come. There, in the Hereafter, the soul is rewarded for every good deed with everlasting bliss.
Although the departed individual no longer has the capability to acquire meritorious deeds for himself, those left behind in this world have the capability of bestowing merit upon their loved one. Each meritorious act that is done in the memory of the departed soul, adds to the soul’s joy and merit in the World to Come.
Unfathomable Comfort – A True Story
Anna Preisand was a single woman from Georgia. For many years, Anna devotedly cared for her ill sister. After her sister passed away, Anna approached Rabbi C., the principal of her local day school, requesting that he arrange Mishnah study in her sister’s merit.
Rabbi C. asked a teacher in the school, who agreed to do the Mishnah study in the deceased woman’s merit.
Sometime later, Anna Preisand disappointedly asked the principal why the Mishnah study was not being completed. Nonplussed, the principal spoke to the teacher.
“How did you know?” the teacher asked in astonishment. “The truth is, lately I’ve been lax in studying Mishnah for Ms. Preisand’s sister.”
The principal then asked a different Rabbi to stand in for the teacher. Rabbi Y. agreed gladly, and once again the Mishnah was studied in the merit of Ms. Preisand’s sister. Each time Rabbi Y. met Anna Preisand, she thanked him from the bottom of her heart, saying, “You don’t know how much I owe you for studying the Mishnah for the sake of my sister.”
One day, Rabbi Y. curiously asked Anna, “How did you know that the teacher had stopped studying the Mishnah for your sister? And how are you so sure that it is being completed now?”
Anna replied, “At the time that the Mishnah study was discontinued, my sister appeared to me in a dream. She was dressed in grotesque clothing, and her expression was grim. In the dream she said, “I depended on you for the Mishnah, and it’s not being done.”
“After Rabbi C. arranged that you would resume the Mishnah study where the teacher left off, my sister once again appeared to me in a dream. This time her face was radiant.
“‘You have no idea what a comfort this is for me,’ my sister said.
“And that is how I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Mishnah is being studied properly in my sister’s merit,” Anna concluded.
(As heard from Rabbi Y., Georgia.)