Passing on in Repentance
When I was visiting New York, a woman approached me with a request for a blessing in the merit of my fathers. She was fighting a dangerous illness and wished to be cured.
This woman was not Torah-observant at the time. I instructed her to repent from her former way of life. There was no doubt that this illness which plagued her was a sign from Heaven that she must do teshuvah.
I noticed that she was wearing an especially large, eye-catching ring. I told her to remove it and never wear it again, due to reasons of modesty. She accepted my words and did complete teshuvah.
This woman suffered tremendously from her difficult illness. Whenever I traveled to New York, she would come to ask me for a berachah. Then, on one visit to New York, I saw that her husband seemed withdrawn, and had stopped shaving, as is the custom of mourners. I asked him about his wife.
At the mention of his wife, the man burst into sobs. For some moments, he could not speak clearly. Finally, he sadly related that his wife had succumbed to her illness. But before she closed her eyes forever, she had asked him to recite Kriyat Shema with her. Then she said the viduy prayer. Then, she told her husband, “After I pass on, tell Rav Pinto that since my first visit to him three years ago, I have developed a relationship with Hashem. In the Rav’s merit, I maintained my faith, believing I would continue to live. There is no doubt in my mind that it is due to my emunah that I was granted an additional three years, the best ones of my life. These years were lived on a spiritual level. Please give him my humble thanks.”
Let us take the message of this story to heart. One should constantly seek areas of improvement, obviating a wake-up call from Heaven. Since one never knows when his final day will be, he should always be in a state of teshuvah.
