A Letter to Heaven

A young chassid of the Rebbe made his living by travelling from place to place as a merchant. Each time before setting out, he would come to Rav Aharon for a parting berachah. On one such visit, before giving it, the Rebbe asked him what he was bringing along. Confused by the question, the man began to list his belongings: his clothes, his tools, his bags, his food and the goods he planned to sell. Rav Aharon pressed him further. “And what about tachrichim, burial shrouds?”

Shaken, the man grasped that the Rebbe was alluding to his coming death, and he stood rooted to the spot, unable to speak. The Rebbe calmed him. “Do not be afraid. When you travel, you need to take along whatever you will need for the road ahead.” Then Rav Aharon sat down, wrote a letter and addressed it. He sealed it in an envelope and slipped that envelope into a blank outer one, so that no address showed. He told the man to take the letter with him and to ask that it be laid beside him on his last journey.

In the town of Kriminchik the merchant became gravely ill. There he met Rav Yitzchok, also a chassid of Karlin, whose task was to gather the Maamados, the monthly stipends that chassidim gave to support the Rebbe's household and court. Rav Yitzchok, who later told this story, heard that a fellow chassid lay on his deathbed and went to see him.

The sick man told him about the letter, and Rav Yitzchok asked to look at it. He took it out of the outer envelope and saw the name of Rav Osher of Stolin on it. This was the Rebbe's father, long since gone from this world. Rav Yitzchok understood what it meant: the Rebbe had known that this man would soon depart and could carry the letter there. He offered to take it himself and to lie down in the man's place. The merchant would not hear of it. The Rebbe had given the letter to him, he said, so seeing it through was his duty and no one else's. He asked Rav Yitzchok to stay at his side and to make sure the chevra kadisha put the letter in his hand.

Rav Yitzchok agreed on two conditions. The man must come back and tell him what happened after leaving this world, and he must hand the letter only to the person it was addressed to, whatever happened. Rav Yitzchok stayed until the man's last breath. The chevra kadisha prepared the body and placed the letter in his hands at the burial, and Rav Yitzchok repeated his warning once more.

Some time later the man appeared to Rav Yitzchok in a dream. He had felt no pain, he said, and an angel had asked whether he carried a letter for Rav Osher of Stolin. He did, but he told the angel that he must give it to Rav Osher himself. The angel led him through chamber after chamber of the heavenly realms. Each time, a new group of angels met them, the previous angel said he could go no farther, and the new angels demanded the letter. Each time the man refused, remembering the warning. At last he came to the chamber of Rav Osher of Stolin. “More than this I am forbidden to reveal to you.”