Parshas Acharei-Mos
(Ha’Godol)
Kareis
Rabeinu Bachye divides Kareis into three categories – a Kareis that affects the body only, a Kareis that affects the Soul, and a Kareis that affects both.
The first category entails dying prematurely, either in years or in days. Let us say that a Tzadik, who has more merits than sins, but who stumbled over a sin that is subject to Kareis. He will die before his time is up. And a good example of this is the story of a certain Talmid who slept in the same bed as his wife, fully clothed during her days of Libun (after she had Toveled). And although he had committed no other sin, the Gemara tells us in Shabbos (Daf 13), he died prematurely. That constitutes Kareis of years.
On the other hand, take an aged Tzadik who slips up on a Chiyuv Kareis, and who is no longer subject to Kareis of years, seeing as has already reached old age. Yet he too, will die prematurely. This is called a Kareis of days, as he will not reach the age that was designated for him. And it is in this regard that the Gemara at the end of Mo’ed Katan relates how, when Rav Yosef attained the age of sixty, he made a party for his colleagues, because, he declared, he had left the realm of Kareis. And when his star disciple Abaye asked him that, age-wise, he was still eligible for Kareis of days, he retorted that since he had left the realm of Kareis of years, that was reason enough to celebrate.
And because the Kareis of days, unlike that of years, is not well-known, Hakadosh-Baruch-Hu publicizes it. Hence Chazal have said, that if an old man dies following an illness lasting three days, it is a sign that he transgressed a Chiyuv Kareis. The Yerushalmi states that if an old man eats Cheilev or transgresses Shabbos, then death in one day is a sign of ‘a death of fury’; after two days, it is a sign of ‘a death of confusion’, whereas after three days, it is a sign of a death of Kareis.
In connection with the current Kareis, the Torah writes “and that man shall be cut off from the midst of his people”. His body dies, but his Soul leaves the body and merits to go to the world of Neshamos, to Techi’as ha’Meisim and to Olam ha’Bo that comes after it.
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The second category of Kareis, ‘Kareis of the Soul’ affects someone who has performed more sins than Mitzvos, and those sins include a particularly stringent one, such as eating Chametz on Pesach, eating or working on Yom Kipur or indulging in adultery or incest. When he dies, his Neshamah leaves his body, it is cut off from the world of the Neshamos. About him the Torah will use the expression “And the Souls that sinned will be cut off” or “And that Soul will be cut off from its people” (and the like, always inserting the word “Soul” or “Souls”). It is possible that he is not subject to Kareis of the body, and that he will live out his life in tranquility in this world, as the Pasuk writes in Koheles “And there are some Resha’im who live long in their wickedness”.
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What happens then to those Neshamos? R. Bachye citing the Ib’n Ezra and the Rambam, maintains that they simply die like animals, as is implied by the various expressions that the Torah uses in connection with this group of sinners – “Hikarfeis Tikareis” and “ve’nichr’sah ha’Nefesh ha’hi me’amehah” and “ve’nichr’sah ha’Nefesh ha’hi mi’Lefonai” (“and that Soul shall be cut off before Me”) – and G-d is everywhere.
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