The Talmud records that Rabbi Yehudah the Prince grew old, was afflicted with a long and painful illness. The Rabbis sent their colleague, Bar Kapparah, to see how Rabbi Yehudah was doing. Bar Kapparah returned, and reported that, “Angels and humans were struggling to possess the Ark. The angels have triumphed, and the Ark has been captured.
The body that lives in the coffin before us was a Holy Ark, which house the spirit, soul, that was the very embodiment of Torah.”
Talmud records that when Bar Kapparah had reported that the angels had triumphed and the Holy Ark had been captured by them, the rabbis responded, “Do you mean to say that Rabbi Yehudah had died? He responded, “You said it, not I.”
For Bar Kapparah, Rabbi Yehudah did not die. He remained alive.
Today, through the Mishna of that he edited, it remains even as the day when he wrote it.
-Rabbi Simon Greenberg
Comments