A Death Notice
When I was receiving people in the States, Mr. Azulai approached me. He had married at a late age and asked to be blessed with children. As is my practice, I asked him to improve certain aspects of his Avodat Hashem. With Hashem’s help, his wife gave birth to triplets.
The next year found me, once again, on American shores. Mr. Azulai brought his three darling daughters to visit me. He thanked me profusely for my blessing in the merit of my forefathers, zy”a. He placed a sum of money in my hands, a donation to our institutions.
When I next visited his hometown, the following year, he did not visit me at all. This caused me some consternation. As I was about to make the long journey home, he suddenly appeared and asked for a blessing. But he apologized that he had no donation to offer me.
I was surprised to hear this. Scriptures state (Mishlei 10:2), “Charity saves from death.” I didn’t say anything, though. I just blessed him as he had requested. I gave him the benefit of the doubt, certain that he would send his contribution at a later date.
A few weeks after I arrived home, I received a phone call that Mr. Azulai had had an aneurism and died at the age of fifty-two! I was shocked and shaken by this news. My American host, who had relayed it, was also stunned and frightened.
“Why are you frightened?” I asked.
“The day before he died, Mr. Azulai told me, ‘What will be with me? Perhaps I will die tomorrow and I will have no one to recite Kaddish for me, for I have no sons.’ He asked that I should recite the Kaddish after he dies. I was surprised at his words. He was young and healthy. Therefore, I asked him, ‘Mr. Azulai, why are you talking like this? You are the picture of health. There is no reason why you should die in the near future.’ But he answered in a solemn voice that he had a feeling his time was up. And the next day, he was gone.”
I replied, “This is what Chazal meant when they said that a person is informed of his death thirty days beforehand” (Zohar I, 217b).
Mr. Azulai felt his end was coming and therefore arranged for Kaddish to be said on his behalf. His instincts certainly motivated him to do teshuvah. He merited fulfilling the exhortation of our Sages (Avot 2:10), “Repent one day before you die.” He certainly merited a portion in the World to Come.
Of course, not everyone knows when his death is imminent. Unfortunately, many are taken without having managed to do teshuvah. But it is a special merit for one to know when his end is near.
