Right Next to Hashem | Rabbi Benzion Klatzko

Tragedy struck in Eretz Yisroel. A Yeshiva was going on a Lag BaOmer trip. They had gone to the מקומות הקדושים in Tzefas, in Meron, in Teveria, and they were on their way down to Yonason ben Uziel in Amuka, and unfortunately, the bus tipped over, it rolled down a ravine and three of the boys were Niftar. That night, one of the boys came to his friend in a dream and he said: I'm coming back down to you, because you and I learned Chumash with Rashi בעיון, and we made up once, a little while ago, that whichever one of us is Niftar first, he should come to his friend in a dream and tell him what is the reward for learning Chumash with Rashi בעיון. So I want to tell you that they took me to a place in Gad Eden called היכל של רש”י, and I now sit at the feet of Rashi. I am understanding the depths of Chumash, and I'm hearing it from Rashi himself. And there's one other boy, and the way he was greeted, with the Mal’achim, with a song, was unlike the way we were greeted. His Neshama was taken straight to כסא הכבוד, where he is honored and he sits next to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Because he was Makpid, he was extra careful since he was young in Shemiras Ha’einayim. The Sefarim bring down that if someone is careful in Shemiras Ha’einayim, their Neshama is brought after they’re Niftar to כסא הכבוד. The boy said: I'm going to tell you one more thing and then I have to leave. Being in this dream is painful for me. I need to be back in Gan Eden. Because we were young, Our פטירה has a great כפרה effect on Klal Yisroel. Tomorrow there's going to be a bomb on a bus in Tel Aviv. More than 20 people are going to be Niftar, but all of them will be adults, and their כפרה will not be as great as ours. The boy wakes up and he's very shaken up by this whole dream. He runs to his Mashgiach and says: Mashgiach, this boy who was Niftar was my Chavrusa and we made up this deal. And he came to me in a dream and this is what he said. And the Mashgiach was visibly moved. He decided at the Levaya, he's going to tell over the story. Thousands of people there, he tells over the story. This boy brought to היכל של רש”י and then the other boy, who was careful in Shemiras Ha’einayim, brought to כסא הכבוד, the highest place לנצח נצחים. And then he thinks: Should I tell the very last part of the story? Then he decides: I should. If I was meant to hear it, I am meant to tell it over. And he says: לא עלינו, it shouldn't happen, but it was predicted in this dream that there's going to be a bomb on a bus in Tel Aviv, and 20 people are going to be Niftar. And their כפרה won't be as great as these three boys. People driving back from the Levaya were visibly moved. They turn on the radio and all of a sudden there’s breaking news, a bomb on a bus in Tel Aviv. 20 people are Niftar. This, of course, screams to the validity, the veracity of this story. That when one is careful with one's eyes, one is brought to a מקום of greatness, next to HaKadosh Baruch Hu forever and ever. That's the greatest pleasure. It should be a goal of ours to be as close to Hashem as possible. And the best way to do that is to be careful with our eyes, to hold back even when we want to look.