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“And the Lord God commanded Adam, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you are free to eat; but as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die’” (Genesis 2:16-17). The purpose of this instruction was to prevent evil from penetrating people’s bodies. Obedience would have meant immortality. Nevertheless, Adam and Eve ate the fruit of that tree and were punished. As it says, “To Adam He said . . . ‘By the sweat of your brow shall you get bread to eat, until you return to the ground – for from it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return’” (ibid. 3:17-19). As a consequence, the same evil which penetrated our bodies would cause those bodies to self-destruct, ultimately leading to death.
However, this punishment was also designed to be beneficial and to help us improve ourselves. Without death, there would be no end to the harm the wicked could perpetrate. The strong would endlessly oppress the weak, while pursuing every worldly desire. Instead, now that death is inevitable, the wicked eventually die, and the world is better off.
Death benefits the righteous too. For there is no completely righteous person on earth who always does what is right and never sins (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Accordingly, the righteous would find their lives very frustrating without death. They would feel suffocated by their accumulated sins, without being able to escape from them and redeem themselves. Death, in separating body and soul, also destroys the sins the body has accrued, thus allowing the soul to ascend to the world of souls and be purified. More precisely, it is the righteous whose souls ascend immediately to heaven, where they can bask in the glory of the Divine Presence. Ordinary people, who need to be purified of their sins, are sent to hell for as long as the purification takes. Then they too ascend to heaven and once more connect with God. “The dust returns to the ground as it was, and the soul returns to God, Who bestowed it” (ibid. 12:7).
Thus sins are eradicated when death separates body and soul. In this way, death repairs every individual and all of humanity. At the end of days, when the entire world has been repaired, the souls will be reborn and live once again, in new bodies God will provide when He resurrects the dead. (That is, except for those who were completely evil. When they die, their bodies rot and their souls burn, becoming ash beneath the feet of the righteous.)
Parallel to the body's burial, the soul begins its purification process and begins to shine. The mourners must bear this in mind. Remembering the good deeds of the deceased, they can help with the purification. The more the mourners improve themselves as a result of the deceased’s good example, the higher the soul ascends. At the end of the purification process, the soul is on a higher level than before, the same way that penitents (who have been purified through suffering) are on a higher level than the completely righteous. Because sin entered the bodies of Adam and Eve, all their descendants struggle with sin. But all become penitents. First, they are purified through the suffering and death of their bodies, and then their souls are refined in fires on high. They reach the highest levels in the world of souls, until the world is completely repaired. When the dead are resurrected, the souls will be reborn and live a perfect life for all of eternity.
The laws of mourning all express acknowledgment of divine judgment, an acceptance combining sadness and faith. On the one hand, the pain is terrible, and therefore crying and grief are appropriate. On the other hand, mourners must not drown in despair or mourn excessively, as the sorrow and pain are meant to improve and cleanse. Therefore, the Torah commands that mourners must not self-harm, gouging skin or tearing out hair. As we said above, God governs the world with justice and goodness; excessive mourning indicates a lack of belief in this fundamental of faith.
