Before descending into the world, each soul experienced the intensities of infinite love from the source of love and life, the Creator. People who experienced clinical death and “peeked” at the life beyond our life in this world describe the supreme pleasure of cleaving to the infinite light.
Many people may have heard or read descriptions of those who there, but I was privileged to hear a number of first-hand testimonies from the people closest to me.
The first time my grandfather told over the story of his extraordinary experience, which he incidentally experienced twice during the bloody Holocaust, we were mesmerized. The central point of his story was the moment when he found himself hovering above his body, watching the drama unfold around him. He shouted to his mother that he really felt good and that he was comfortable “up here” and that they should leave him alone. Of course no one heard his shouting.
The first time it happened, he was only about sixteen years old. He longingly described the white light which drew him forth and wrapped him in an addictive love, adding that there were no words in the world that could describe or illustrate the enormity of this pleasure. After returning to life, he felt he returned to a world full of masks which overshadowed his phenomenal feeling.
If only we could pull back the curtains that darken our hearts, we would understand that G-d's love for us is unconditional, and eternal. One verse that illustrates this courageous and moving connection is: “Thus says the Lord, I Remember the kindness of your youth, the love of your bride hood, following after me in the desert in the unplanted land.” (Yirmiyahu 2) God proclaims his eternal love for his one and only bride – the people of Israel. Every Jew who reads this verse can hear the Lord whisper to his heart: “I also remember the kindness you have done, and still do, consenting to follow me in the most difficult moments with total faith, though the path is misleading and confusing. I also remember the first and purest moments of our connection; the love of our partnership, when our hearts and aspirations joined into one unit that is home to that love and brings its potential to actuality, bearing fruit”.
The Holy One, blessed be He, asks all Jews to awaken and arouse their love ‘until they desire’ (G-d’s closeness), and to continue to walk, with genuine devotion, against the vicissitudes of life and its trials, which are like “the unplanted lands”. For only in this way can someone feel that feeling of eternal love and connection which has no comparable pleasure in this world to the point that: “Many waters cannot extinguish the love and rivers cannot wash it away.”
Our Eternal Groom signs His note with the following request: “The one who sits in gardens, friends are listening to your voice, let Me hear it… for your voice is sweet and your countenance pleasant.”
