Terumah

Our Parsha opens with the command for the people to contribute to the mishkan. The Torah then discusses the various components & vessels to be kept there. One of the primary components was the שלחן, the table. ועשית שלחן עצי שטים , “you shall make a tabletop of shittim wood”. 

The Midrash says the word שטים is a mnemonic standing for , שלום, טובה, ישועה and מחילה , informing us that a person's table can bring him peace, goodness, salvation & forgiveness. If a person is generous & feeds people that need it, then the bread on his table is like a sacrifice granting the person forgiveness for his sins allowing all the blessings to follow.

Rabbainu Bachya says it was the custom for the pious in Tzefas to make their casket out of their table to show that a person doesn't take anything with him to the next world except for the charity that one gave and the good that one did around the table.  

‎There was a rabbinic scholar who asked the following question to Rav Chaim Kanievsky: I have an ‏elderly mother who ‎suffered terribly in the holocaust; not only was her whole family killed before her eyes, she too was tortured terribly. She called me to her bedside & said, “I feel like my time is coming to an end;  I want to tell you what kept me strong, what helped me make it through all the atrocities. It was the words of this prayer, ובכל זאת שמך לא שכחנו, נא אל תשכחנו , and through all this Your name we didn't forget, please don't forget us. 

These words were on my lips at all times; especially when things were at their worst, I took solace in these words. I interpreted them to mean that just like we didn't forget Him in this awful purgatory where we still yearn to keep His mitzvos, so, too, He shouldn't forget us and leave us in the hands of these evil wicked people. Now”, concluded the woman, “Hashem listened to my prayer & saved me & brought me up to the land of Israel.  I even merited children & grandchildren who are all following in the way of Hashem. For that, I give praise to Hashem who remembered me & redeemed me from death to life. 

Now, what I am asking you to do is that when it comes time for me to leave this world, I want you to put in my hand a paper with those words on it.  Just as those words got me out of the purgatory of the Holocaust, so, too, it will take me out of purgatory in the next world & take me to Gan Eden.” 

The rabbinic scholar wanted to know if he was allowed to put those words in her hand in the grave?

Reb Chaim answered that he was allowed but added that Hashem doesn't need it, for Hashem knows everything. The paper with the posuk won't do anything for her. However, don't tell her that part, for if it makes her feel better, then just do as she asks. 

‎This question  was asked in front of  הגר"א מן ‎who then asked Reb Chaim, since we know of many gedolim who asked to be buried with their seforim that they wrote, and, as well, Rabainu Bachya said that people used to be buried in their table, we see that there is something to this practice.  Why was this case any different?  

Answered Reb Chaim, “it's very different. The purpose of the gedolim was to show the people that the only thing one takes with him is not his gold & silver; rather, it's only Torah ‎& mitzvos that go with him”. As Rabbainu Bachya wrote, “it was to show that the only thing you take with you is the chesed & tzedaka that you do”. But this woman wanted to take this paper to guarantee a good judgement which Hashem doesn't need. He knows all. 

This should teach us to open our homes & our hearts to other people, to try to help out as much as we can, for the only things that will count in the long run are the things we did to help others. So, always have guests around the table to merit the blessings of  , שלום, טובה, ישועה and מחילה ,peace, goodness, salvation & forgiveness‎!