Before experiencing clinical death, Shiril describes herself back then as "SECULAR"— a wholly secular woman married to a wholly secular man.
In her own words:
We married in joy and happiness.
And I’d no connection to that world [of religion and spirituality].
We never kept Shabbat.
We got married according to dat Moshe v’Yisrael [according to authentic Jewish Law] — and it ended with that.
We made our baby a brit—and that’s it.
Regarding a life of mitzvot and emuna, she says:
It didn’t interest me at all!
I’m a math and science teacher. My entire essence is mathematical...I studied the philosophy of Darwin and evolution—I LIVED it!
Throughout all the years, I lived it and I studied it. I had NO connection at all to this kind of emuna.
Drama in This World & The Next
They also shook her and begged her to “help” them, but she said even though she heard them perfectly, she could not respond or open her eyes (as they begged her to do) because she said “the neshamah [soul] is completing matters Above with the Creator of the world.”
She experienced a life review, describing it as follows:
It shows me a journey of cheshbon nefesh [self-accounting], my past, my childhood...It doesn’t show me this as watching TV.
It shows it to me and I actually live it...scenes run by, showing me the moments of my life fullest of meaning and love — and it greatly encourages me.
Throughout it all, Shirli knew she was coming back into This World because in the Upper World, they held up a sign written in the letters of a sofer stam (the way Hebrew letters are written in a mezuzah or sefer Torah):
It is not yet your time. You are returning.
They held up this sign 3 times.
Just before her soul returned to her body, her soul experienced promises imprinted on it. Her return remained conditional on these promises imprinted onto her soul — promises such as publicizing her NDE and speaking of Hashem's miracles, His Power, and His Abilities.
Not long after her soul returned to her body, Shirli's husband came to visit her. She explained the changes she now needed to make, based on what they told her Above:
I’m not returning to the Ministry of Education. I have another role to do.
I need you to be with me hand in hand.
Classic Hebrew – The Language of the Soul
For example, Shirli now understands the modern Hebrew spoken today is not real Hebrew.
Emphasizing how the Hebrew she heard Above is not the Hebrew spoken today, she labels the Hebrew she heard in the Upper World as "Sfat Kodesh"— Holy Language.
Whenever Shirli attempts to read a bit of Zohar (which contains Judeo-Aramaic combined with classic Hebrew) or kabbalah, or when she reads the Torah itself, or when she speaks to rabbanim who use a more classic Hebrew, she feels her soul has returned home again, and speaks further about the impact of Sfat Kodesh on the neshamah:
It understands the language! And it feels good with it! And it’s overjoyed!
Today, I'll read something that I never would have dared read! It didn’t interest me at all!
At this point, I don't hold a "belief—emunah." Rather, I possess knowledge — I possess the knowledge that there is a Creator for the world.
Doing REAL Teshuvah in the RIGHT Way
Wearing loose, modest clothing with a high ruffled collar, Shirli looks charmingly & femininely old-fashioned — and youthful, sweet, and radiant.
Facing forward, it looks like Shirli's generous white hair-covering covers all her hair.
But from the side, one sees a dark braid with a band of bleached hair weaving through it.
At first, I thought it might be some kind of funky shaitel. But I never saw a shaitel like that and anyway, especially with the bleached hair, it didn't make sense as a shaitel.
So I think that's where she's holding in her journey of tsniyut (dressing & behaving with dignity and modesty) — dressing modestly and partially covering her head while modestly braiding the visible hair.
(And it could be by now, she's covering all of it.)
Shirli details what she learned about true teshuvah in the Upper World:
The most important thing is to do it with love.
The Creator of the world wants our heart, that we’ll love each other, that it should be from love.
We don't do teshuvah from fear as there is no fear in Shamayim.
There was only love and only good. It’s teshuvat halev [repentance of the heart].
It’s a process — and we don’t press anyone into any corner.
And the Creator of the world loves that process.
He wants it to come from a place of love, from a place of genuine connection.
And the matters of Heaven are greater than us. And each person and his own journey.
But I do understand the powerful meaning that stands behind tsniyut and Shabbat. They’re truly massive and important illuminations.
And I hope that if I succeeded in influencing only one mother or even just one child, that they’ll take with themselves the understanding that there is a Power that helps us, guides us, and directs us, that gives us the way to cope and the strengths to cope, and just that we should engage in prayer.
He’s waiting for this! He’s here.
He wants us to call to Him, He wants us to be with Him, He wants us to be connected to Him.
Teshuvah has a certain melody, a certain rhythm.
It’s forbidden for any person to bother anyone else—just the opposite!
Just send prayer and love and blessing — tefillah and ahavah and bracha.
For more true stories from that series (or stories from the Upper World in general), please see the following: