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Who doesn't wish to be able to see or be visited by the soul of one of the great tzadikim? Most of us think if only, if only, if only we could merit such a thing... However, it is important to realize the proper prospective, how impractical this is. Here are two stories to that effect.
These stories and many other amazing stories can be found here: yemey-shmuel-english.doc (nanach.org) - one of the many files offered on nanach.org.
Story one of Rabbi Shmuel Heller:
Once he was studying in the writings of the Ari, and was confounded by a matter he did not understand. So he prayed and asked the Ari to come and study this matter with him, and so it was - the Ari came and studied with him, but afterwards he regretted that he had bothered our master the Ari, and accpeted upon himself to go to the Ari's grave every Friday, and recite the entire book of Tehillim there. [eventually he switched to Tikun Haklali, see there].
Story two about Rabbi Avner Louberbaum (interesting enough, I myself heard from my grandfather M. Weinberg o.b.m. this exact expression regarding R. Avner - that he learned Torah roaring like a lion):
One time, when he came home on the night of Shabbos, he was covered in blood. The explanation was that Rabbi Avner has sat and studied at the big pulpit in the middle of the Ari synagogue, where the Seven Shepherds had ascended to the Torah reading during the time of the Ari, as is described in the book Praises of the Ari. The Ari appeared to Rabbi Avner in an awakened state, and he was terrified by it, and leaped down all the steps of the pulpit at once, and fell and was injured, and when he came home he was shaken, and did not want to explain at all what had happened, and his mother decreed in the name of honoring one's parents, that he not go there alone anymore. He fulfilled the decree, and afterwards he always had a room designated for service of G-d and also for hosting guests, etc...
On the other hand we find that when a person merits to be accompanied by the holy souls of the righteous, they will probably be completely unaware, as we find in the story of the Ari when he stood for someone who came to him, and the person asked the Ari what that was about, and the Ari told him that since that person had done an awesome mitzva that morning of redeeming captives at great personal cost, the soul of the holy Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair - who exemplified this mitzva - came to accompany him, and the Ari stood up in his honor.
Na Nach Nachma Nachman MayUman
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