Regarding your question, “Why we were left so alone in the war?” our sages said, “All who weep and mourn over a worthy person,” etc. (Shabbat 105b). What is the meaning of weeping and mourning?
It is known that there are two kinds of weeping: There is weeping of grief and there is weeping of joy. When the heart fills with overexcitement, whether the excitement comes from good things or bad things, this excitement manifests outwards. It is like a glass of water—when it fills up, it overflows. It is likewise with tears, which are a surplus that pours out. This is why there are tears of joy, and, of course, the opposite.
However, tears with no reason are impossible, although there are artificial tears, meaning one who wants to show another that he is impressed with something, this too is cause for tears. However, this is considered artificial.
Therefore, when a worthy person dies and we feel the lack, the feeling and sorrow accumulate in the heart, it manifests in tears. Naturally, when a person feels a certain measure of lack, that lack is called a “prayer,” and through prayer we extend the loss once more. But when we do not pay attention and accept the situation, we grow farther each time until we forget.
It is known that the dead are forgotten from the heart, since death is called “despair.” This is why there is a complaint about the deceased who was connected to that person—and that connection required that person’s attention—that the righteous has perished but no one notices.
Therefore, in order to avoid slandering a person who was connected to the deceased righteous, the deceased righteous makes a correction by taking back from him what he gave to him. At that time, that person becomes very bad, since those who already had will to receive for spirituality, when they lose the spirituality, corporeal things begin to fill up the measure of pleasure of spirituality. Hence, they fall far lower, meaning into greater measures of lowly lusts and passion for honor.
This is why he explained after the event that happened to us they forgot the essence and took to themselves a path of dispute…
In any case, I knew what the outcome would be beforehand. There are people who can conceal their thoughts, and there are people who haven’t that strength, and their thoughts appear outwards, meaning they do improper things and show to all that they have not, nor had before any connection with the righteous.
So why are you surprised now? It was determined right after Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) of 1954, and since then it has been nothing but a succession of development of their thoughts and actions.
Now you will have a better understanding of the necessity to believe in the words of our sages, who obligated man to say, “The world was created for me.” But how do you take this greatness—that one should have excessive pride? Yet, if the foundation is entirely of faith, we can believe this, too. If a person is working for himself, then there are such arguments. But if a person wants, at the very least, for his desire to be for the Creator, he can believe this, too, since we need faith every step of the way.
“The righteous are greater in their death than in their life.” That is, we must increase the faith when they die more than when they are alive, since the whole basis of the way of the righteous is in faith. Only in this way does knowing appear, and only one who has been rewarded with walking in the path of faith will have the wisdom and the might.
“Anyone who is idle with the eulogy of a sage should be buried in his life” (Shabbat 105b). This means that where deficiency is not felt, idleness is felt. Since he does not feel the loss and is not impressed enough to awaken a eulogy in his heart, then even though he is still alive, before the vitality he had received from the sage has departed from him, still, he should be buried in his life.
As the dead can be corrected only through burial, this man should be buried because death is certain to come, meaning that life will depart him. This is why our sages tell us that he should be buried right now…
Baruch Shalom HaLevi
Son of Baal HaSulam