"If you walk in my statutes… and I will give peace in the land" (Leviticus/Vayikra 26:3-6)
The holy tomb of Rebbe Shimon ben Yochai in Meron is acknowledged and celebrated as a holy place where myriads of Jews are accustomed to make pilgrimages and they find that they are worthy to receive salvations and healing.
This needs to be explained, why is this place so auspicious to nullify difficult decrees?
It is possible to explain: If someone engages in religious outreach, he has tremendous clout, more than others, to nullify evil decrees, as we find in Bava Metzia 85a, where the Talmud asks why we find so many stories where Rebbe Yehudah HaNasi would put aside all of his important business in order to help young Jewish men repent. The Gemara answers that anyone who teaches Torah to the children of an ignoramus, even if Hashem makes a decree, it may be nullified on his behalf.
On the other hand, if someone holds himself back from engaging in kiruv work, it is possible that the prosecuting angels in Heaven could argue to make evil decrees against him, as we find that the Prophet Jonah suffered because he held himself back from going to encourage the people of Nineveh to repent, and the Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni - Yonah 551) explains that we learn from the story of Jonah that one can come to suffer if he has the opportunity to cause others to repent and fails to do so.
Similarly, we find that during the season of Sefiras HaOmer, when the Kabbalists teach there is power given to the Attributes of Strict Judgment, this caused the death of thousands of Rebbe Akiva's holy disciples, because of their lack of perfection in love for their fellow Jews. The Midrash explains (Koheles Rabbah 11) that their main fault was that they did not want to offer spiritual charity by teaching Torah to others, therefore on Lag B'Omer, Rebbe Akiva only had seven disciples remaining. Rebbe Akiva told them "the only reason the others died was because they were stingy in sharing Torah teachings with others. You cannot be like them." Immediately, these seven disciples arose and taught Torah to the entire Jewish People.
This is why most pious Jewish communities have various customs of mourning during this season of Sefiras HaOmer, as a sign of mourning over the deaths of Rebbe Akiva's students, who were conquered by the Divine Attribute of Strict Justice during this season, because each one of them only studied Torah for himself. On the day of Lag B'Omer, we have a custom to increase our expressions of joy, because on this day the efforts to spread Torah were renewed and strengthened by these disciples who remained alive. This needs to be a reminder for us to increase the spread of Torah and Judaism.
The greatest of Rebbe Akiva's seven remaining students was Rebbe Shimon ben Yochai, who never gave up hope when he saw how the generation was so lowly after the death of thousands of Rebbe Akiva's students. He encouraged himself to go and teach Jews both the revealed Torah and the hidden mystical Torah, because he knew that with Divine Help he would succeed to prevent the Torah from being forgotten. This is like the Talmud teaches (Shabbos 138b) that Rebbe Shimon ben Yochai said: "Heaven forbid, the Torah will never be forgotten from the Jewish People, as it says 'it will not be forgotten from the mouth of his progeny' (Deuteronomy/Devarim 31:21)".
We find many times in Rebbe Shimon's Holy Zohar that he spoke often about the importance of the concept of kiruv. In Parshas Terumah (p. 128-129) the Zohar has a long discourse on this subject, where he explains how this causes the power of the Side of Evil to be broken, and allows the entire world to continue to exist.
According to this, we can understand well why so many people are worthy to accomplish tremendous salvations at the tomb of Rebbe Shimon ben Yochai in Meron, because Rebbe Shimon ben Yochai put in tremendous efforts toward kiruv, thus he has more power than other tzaddikim to be a good advocate in Heaven for those who make the pilgrimage to pray at his tomb, and to remove the powers of strict judgement, as we find (Sukkah 45b) that Rebbe Shimon ben Yochai said about himself, "I am able to exempt the entire world from judgment!"
We find also other Tzaddikim, who worked a lot in Kiruv, and in this merit they were worthy to nullify many difficult decrees both in their lives and after their deaths. It is particularly worthy to mention three of my holy ancestors, the holy Rebbe R' Elimelech of Lizensk zya, the holy Rebbe Yitzhak Isaac of Kalov zya, and the holy Rebbe Tzvi Hirsch of Ziditchov zya. All three of them put in tremendous efforts into reaching out to bring Jewish souls to be close to their Father in Heaven. All three of their graves were popular pilgrimage places in Europe before the Holocaust, where everyone would go to pray, particularly on their yahrtzeits, because people were able to accomplish great salvations there.
However, it is brought in the name of the holy Rebbe Yitzchak Isaac of Ziditchov zya who once told his chassidim on the verse: (Deuteronomy/Devarim 32:1) "listen Heaven and I will speak" - when will heaven hear the words of the prayers and blessings I speak? "and the earth will hear the words of my mouth" - when people here on earth in this world listen to me.
Therefore, it is insufficient to simply make a pilgrimage and rely vicariously upon these Tzaddikim to make defense for us in Heaven, because if you want Heaven to listen to the words of the Tzaddikim, we need to listen to the words of the Tzaddikim. We have to work hard to follow their ways which they taught us, to work ourselves in Kiruv to bring people to Torah and mitzvos, for the truth is that the power to nullify decrees is hidden within these efforts.
This is hinted to in this week's Parshah, which is called "Bechukosai", which is a plural word, because it hints to two commandments of learning of the law of the Torah, one commandment is that a person needs to teach himself, and the second commandment is that a person need to teach others, as the Or HaChaim HaKadosh explains in his commentary.
Hashem comes to teach the Jewish People for all generations "if you follow My commandments", if you learn yourself and also teach others, only then will you be worthy to nullify all evil decrees, as is written afterward "and I will give peace in the land, and you will rest and have no fear", as well as the other blessings written in the parshah.
Therefore, in these days, we have to be strong to increase our work in Kiruv, both ourselves and with financial support for others, such as to bring other Jews to lectures on Torah and Judaism, and to encourage parents to send their children to learn in yeshivos, etc. In this merit, all of the evil decrees will be nullified, with Hashem's help.
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