[Avodah] Le'ilui Nishmas an Infant

[Zvi Lampel]

On Mon, Dec 21, 2020 at 6:09 PM Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:

> On Sun, Dec 20, 2020 at 08:48:08PM -0500, Zvi Lampel wrote:
> RMB: I really don't know what le'ilui nishmas means when speaking of a
> nifteres who only lived 11 weeks, and therefore didn't become old enough
> for the concept of cheit to have meaning.
>
> ZL: Must one's neshamah have a cheit to have an aliyah? Adam Harishon
> kodeim haCheit also had opportunity to rise to greater heights.
>
> RMB: ...It is possible that there is no maximum hana'ah a human is capable
> of, and therefore whereever they are beshe'as petirah, there is still room
> upward.
>

Yes, that's what I meant.

>
> RMB: Second issue, if someone didn't inspire others to do the mitzvah in
> question, how can that mitzvah be added to their cheshbon. And I don't
> mean that they in effect inspired, I mean chose to inspire. After all,
> what's the sekhar in just happening to be a cause, no different than a
> falling rock could be a cause?...How do we satisfy straightforward notions
> of Dayan haEmes with these things?
>

Yes, this is indeed a problem if the only way one's neshama can have an
aliyah is because one made choices to make oneself deserve it.

You give two examples that illustrate the problem. Here's a simpler one.

Someone is niftar, and people learn mishnayos le'ilui nishmaso. He didn't
inspire them to do that. But their learning is still a gift to him
that he gains.

It seems that the concept is that Hashem gave people the power to gift each
other, or to assign a sharing of the merits they gain to whomever they
please. Just as it is in olam hezeh. What is the justice that I should gain
wealth by my shver gifting me, just because I married his daughter?

Not that I have a mekor for any of this. Maybe we can relate it to the
concept of a kinyan to B through the han'a'a that A get's from B' accepting
the item from him. (The niftar's neshamah is surely choosing to grant the
learner the hana'a of accepting the learner's gift to it. In exchange of
that hana'a to the learner, that neshama gains the merit of the learning.)

Zvi Lampel
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