The Holiest Souls - Rabbi David Schlusselberg

I have an older brother who's severely mentally challenged [music] and he was born with the umbilical cord around his neck and he lost a lot of oxygen for the first few minutes [music] of life that caused permanent brain damage. And he's really limited in what he's able to do in life. He can't speak [music] and he's for most of my life he hasn't lived at home. [music] And I heard a story a number of years ago that helped my perspective on my brother which was that in the early 1900s so there was a person who was mentally challenged who walked into the room where the Chazon Ish was sitting. >> [music] >> The Chazon Ish was one of the greatest rabbis in the 20th century. [music] He died in 1953. And when this person who was mentally challenged walked into the room the Chazon Ish stood up for him. Now usually someone stands up for a person who's a very big rabbi, someone who's really well respected, someone who deserves honor. >> [music] >> And here you have one of the greatest rabbis there is standing up for someone who seems to not have done [music] much, someone who's just a regular person with a mental handicap. And someone asked him, someone said Rabbi, Rebbe why do you stand up for him? And he said when it comes to our Jewish souls that every person [music] has a mission to accomplish in this world, a tikkun, something they have to fix. He said if a person doesn't achieve their goal then they're often reincarnated >> [music] >> and their soul comes back into a new body. And he said many people, most people are actually souls that are reincarnated. He said but a [music] person who's mentally challenged obviously is very limited what they could do. And that means that they are a very, very holy soul >> [music] >> because there's such a small thing that now they have to accomplish in this world that God brought [music] them back to do with their mental handicap, for whatever it may be. Just a small little tikun, and that's the perfection of their soul. [music] So, anyone who's mentally challenged, it means that they're very, very holy people, very holy souls that have been brought back in this world just to fulfill something very small.