Shadows and Light

This past week I celebrated my mother's yahrzeit so when I came upon this bit of learning it seemed particularly poignant. From The Zohar, Pritzker edition,1:218a:

"As a person's days draw near, for thirty days a proclamation is made about him in the world, and even the birds of heaven proclaim...During all those thirty days, his soul departs from him every night, ascending and viewing its place in that world. And the person does not know or perceive or control his soul during all those thirty days as previously, ....From the moment those thirty days begin, a person's tselem (shadow) darkens, and the image visible on the ground is withheld...Look, my soul departs from me every night and does not enlighten me with a dream as before. Further, when I pray and reach 'who hears prayer,' I look for my tselem on the wall and do not see it, so I conclude that since the tselem has disappeared and can no longer be seen, the herald has already gone forth and issued the proclamation, as is written: Only with a tselem does a human walk about - as long as a person's tselem does not disappear, a human walks about, his spirit sustained within him. Once a person's tselem passes away and cannot be seen, he passes away from this world."