When I was in Mexico, I was asked to console a bereaved family. They had recently returned from a family vacation, and their only daughter had been involved in a fatal car accident in which her head had been crushed against a wall, resulting in instant death, rachmana litzlan.
At the house of mourning, the grieving parents asked me why such a thing had happened to them.
“The ways of Hashem are hidden from us,” I told the pained parents. “We have no idea of the reckonings of Heaven. We can never hope to understand why Hashem allows certain things to happen. But this I can tell you: This incident was certainly a sign from Heaven that you must improve your mitzvah observance. You must undertake greater vigilance in kashrut, taharat hamishpachah, and general matters of sanctity and modesty.”
To their credit, they accepted my words. They asked that I show them a hint to their tragedy from Scriptures. I asked for a Sefer Tehillim to be brought to me and opened it at random. To the shock of all present, the sefer opened to the pasuk, “Until when will you plot against a man? May you all be killed – like a leaning wall, a toppled fence” (Tehillim 62:4).
This pasuk was a direct hint to the girl’s tragic end. The family was greatly strengthened by it and asked what they could do to bring elevation to their daughter’s soul.
I instructed them to live like good Jews. Fortifying themselves with mitzvot, through mesirut nefesh, would bring elevation to her soul.
