Emor

The Torah tells us ושמרתם מצותי ועשיתם אתם , you shall guard my commandments and do them. The next posuk says ולא תחללו את שם קדשי , you shall not defile My holy name, ונקדשתי בתוך בני ישראל, and I shall be sanctified among the Jewish people. 

Rashi explains that ושמרתם, to guard the commandments, means to study them to know what to do &  ‎ועשיתם, to do, means the performance of the commandments. Then, in the next posuk, לא תחללו, you shall not defile, means not to intentionally violate My words. Rashi questions that once it says not to defile Hashem’s words, I can infer that if there is no defilement, then there will be sanctification of Hashem’s name.  Why must the Torah explicitly state "and I shall be sanctified"? He answers it’s to teach us that we have to surrender ourselves even to the point of death to sanctify Hashem’s name. 

Now, even though it's a great mitzva to give up your life for Hashem, ‎it's not one that often presents itself. So how do we, on a practical level, fulfill this mitzva?

The אוצרות התורה , quotes numerous sources that teach us that each one of us is able to capitalize on this mitzva every single day. The Mishna Berura says that one should have intention when he says Kedusha  ‎to sanctify Hashem’s name & with that he will fulfill his obligation. The אר"י ז"ל ‎said that, according to the זוהר, one fulfills this commandment when he says or answers Kaddish and Kedusha. 

These far reaching effects can be learned from the following story. There was a respectable couple that lived in Europe who, for years, would give a sizable donation to the yeshiva on condition that someone would say Kaddish for those that had no one else to say it for them. One day, the man passed away & the woman had a hard time taking over the business so it slowly went down until there was almost nothing left. A few years went by & then, not only was the financial situation bad, but now her two daughters were of marriageable  age, adding to her financial problems. 

However, the woman took it all in stride, accepting her lot. There was one thing, though, that she could not accept; that was her commitment to the souls of those that had no one to say kaddish for them. So she went to the yeshiva ‎and spoke to the ones in charge & said please do not stop saying the kaddish; right now I'm having a hard time, but once I get back on my feet, I will continue to pay. So they agreed & the kaddish never stopped. 

One day, when she walked out of the Yeshiva, she saw a very distinguished looking older man coming towards her. She was mesmerized by his countenance & even more shocked when he came over to her & started asking about her life & her kids.  ‎She started telling him her life story & how now she had two daughters to marry off & no money. He asked her how much she needed & was told a hefty sum. He took out a paper from his pocket & wrote out a note to the bank to give her the full amount. Before he signed it, he asked her to get witnesses, so she went into the yeshiva & got two boys to be the witnesses. The man signed it and went on his way. 

The next morning, the woman went to the bank with her paper. The teller didn't know what to make of it so she brought it to the bank president who took one look at the signature & fainted. When he was back to himself, he asked the woman how she got that paper. She told him the whole story & that there are even two witness that saw the whole thing. He then showed her a picture to which she said, “yes, that is the man who gave this to me.” He paid her the money & she left. 

 The he explained that the man who gave the paper to this woman was his father who had passed away ten years ago. The night before, he had come to him in a dream and said: you should know that once you went off the proper path, married a non-Jewish woman & stopped saying kaddish for me, I had no peace in the upper world. However, once this woman paid someone to say the kaddish for me, I was granted peace for my soul. This woman will come to you tomorrow with a note from me to cover the expenses of her two daughters’ weddings. When I woke up, I told my wife about my dream & we laughed at the whole thing. Now that I saw the paper with my father's signature, I know that it was real. 

‎Reb Yosef Chaim Sonnefeld ended this story by asking, “do you know who the two boys were that witnessed this? It was me & my friend Reb Yehuda Greenwald”.  This banker became a baal teshuva, his wife converted & they became Torah observant Jews ... the power of kaddish!