Prayer: A Chilling Story About the Passing of a Young Girl and the Merit of Torah Study for the Elevation of Her Soul

A deceased sister came in a dream to the 12-year-old. "It is good for me here, so tell the parents not to be sorrowful."

The Gaon Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein shlit"a, Rav of the 'Ramat Elchanan' neighborhood in Bnei Brak, revealed a chilling story a few days ago that continues to shake the Torah world: Behind the story lies the mystery of the untimely passing of a 19-year-old girl who was about to marry a Torah scholar, but did not wake up from her sleep.

The Gaon Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein shlit"a, Rav of the 'Ramat Elchanan' neighborhood in Bnei Brak, revealed a chilling story a few days ago that continues to shake the Torah world: Behind the story lies the mystery of the untimely passing of a 19-year-old girl who was about to marry a Torah scholar, but did not wake up from her sleep.

This happened in the year 5774 (2014), when the 12-year-old sister was only eight years old. As is now being published in 'Vavei HaAmudim' and according to the story of Rabbi Zilberstein, the 12-year-old saw her deceased sister in her dream, holding her hand and leading her into a thick forest. There, the two sat down on a bench, and the deceased sister opened her mouth and said to her sister: "Tell our parents not to be sorrowful over my passing, because it is very good for me there."

With these words, the deceased sister began to unfold the meaning behind her sudden passing at such a young age. According to her, it was at the outbreak of the Holocaust, when she was a little girl, and having no other choice, her parents were forced to hand her over to the safekeeping of gentiles. "When the war ended, the gentiles kept me with them and did not return me to my parents."

Tragically, the girl remained among the gentiles until the age of 19. Only then did she discover that she was Jewish and a daughter of the Chosen People. She decided to leave the life she knew in the shadow of the gentiles and return to the Jewish people. "I began to observe Torah and mitzvos and married a Torah scholar," the deceased sister recounted in the dream. "We lived in Bnei Brak, and we built a wonderful family."

When her time came to ascend to Heaven, the young woman was judged in the Heavenly Court, and there it was decreed for her as follows: Since she lived from the age of 19 as a tzadeikes (righteous woman), she deserves Gan Eden (Paradise). However, since she lived as a gentile until the age of 19, she could not enter Gan Eden before undergoing a spiritual purification. "They gave me two choices: either to undergo the purification up in Heaven, or to return here in a gilgul (reincarnation) and live in this world for the 19 years that I was spiritually blemished in that incarnation. I chose the second option, and I was born to my parents in Tifrach until the age of 19. My soul departed from this world in order to reach the supernal world that was designated for me, and it is so good now that I cannot even describe how much."

Amazingly, the story does not end here. When the younger sister woke up in the morning, she did not tell anyone in her family about the dream, thinking that 'dreams speak falsely' (a Talmudic concept that dreams are often meaningless), and surely it was not a true dream.

But then she dreamt it again and again—three times in total. The third time, the deceased sister also pointed out to her that not only was it a true dream, but she would even give her a sign to prove it.

The sign that the deceased sister gave was the father's visit to her grave immediately after the shivah (seven days of mourning). "It was so good for me that Abba (Father) went there and recited chapters of Tehillim (Psalms) for me," the deceased sister recounted in the dream, even though the younger sister remembered nothing of this visit, as she was very young at the time. "On the 'shloshim' (thirtieth day) of my passing, Abba thought that the journey from Tifrach to Jerusalem takes a long time, and he decided not to come to my grave because it would be 'bitul Torah' (neglect of Torah study). On one hand, it would have been good for me if he had decided to come to my grave. On the other hand, the very fact that he did not neglect his Torah study restored my soul many times more than the spiritual satisfaction I received when he came to visit me during the shivah."

Then the young girl decided to unfold the details of the dream to her parents, and her father indeed confirmed that all the details his daughter conveyed were true. "Of course, the parents were greatly comforted by hearing the dream, and they learned a great moral lesson from this," Rabbi Zilberstein says about the shaking story.

According to him, the main lesson the parents learned from the dream is that everything is part of a wondrous calculation before Hashem, and nothing is forgotten by Him, may He be blessed. "But now they also found out what that calculation was, and that it could not have been otherwise. In addition, the parents learned about the immense importance attributed in Heaven to her father's Torah study, to the point that it even overrides visiting the grave—even though doing so brings spiritual satisfaction to the soul," Rabbi Zilberstein concludes.