There is some weird story happening in Berlin. 

According to a report on Ynet, Minister of Religious Affairs Matan Kahana is considering yet another reform that will raise a stink. 

The Lithuanian government is on the verge of destroying a Jewish cemetery in Vilna, Lithuania.

I know chevra kadishas, at least in religious cemeteries or in religious sections of cemeteries, are generally careful to not bury an unrelated man and woman next to each other. Spouses are definitely buried next to each other, and I think siblings can be as well, though sometimes the logistics can get difficult as they try to avoid burying a woman between two men or a man between two women.

Behadrei has news of an Eida pashkevil and protest (not hafgana, just a verbal protest for now) that taught me about a problem I didn't know existed.

Recently Israel witnessed a few horrific car crashes in which many people were killed. In one of thise crashes, some Arabs were among the dead.

Of of the Arab victims of the crash, Alaa Qarash, from East Jerusalem, was refused burial in the Muslim cemetery. The reason given was because Qarash had sold property in Jerusalem to Jews. He was deemed a traitor and burial refused. This psak of the mufti was based on a 1935 psak by Haj Amin Al Husseini - the mufti went way back in the "teshuvos" for this psak. After the Al Aqsa Mosque refused entry to his body for the memorial and burial, many other mosques followed suit and refused to perform the rites for Qarash.

But the psak of the Mufti isn't what makes this interesting. It is the psak that happened as a result of that psak that is interesting.

When Rabbi Aryeh Stern, Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, heard about the situation with Qarash's body he issued his own psak allowing Qarash to be buried in the Jewish cemetery, in Har Hamenuchos, in a section for people without religious affiliation.

Rav Aryeh Stern explained that because the Muslims refuse to bury him we need to do what we can to fix this miscarriage of justice and the shame he and his family was put through after he was willing to sell land to Jews. A righteous gentile should be treated positively. In this case Qarash was willing to risk his own life for the Jewish settlement.
sources: Ynet and Srugim

On Wednesday the Knesset passed the initial reading of a law proposed by MK Ofer Shelach (Yesh Atid) by which, if passed, it would become illegal for the service provider or anyone else to sell in the confines of a cemetery, or within 100 meters of a cemetery, any product or service not directly connected to the funeral or burial. Exceptions could be made with the approval of the minister (I guess the Minister of Religious Services). In addition, the service provider would have to wear an identification badge.

The proposed law is intended to put an end to the selling of amulets, segulot, and other such items that are commonly sold in cemeteries. The sellers take advantage of mourners' emotional state to sell them these things that they don't need and many of them would not otherwise buy.

The identification clause would also assist mourners and others in properly identifying the appropriate service provider in the cemetery rather than other people with private interests who might be targeting mourners.

The proposal passed its initial reading with no opposition - 49 in favor, none opposed and 1 abstention. The bill will now be prepared for further voting.
(source: Bechadrei)

I wonder if this will only apply to regular cemeteries where people bury their relatives and friends, or if it will also apply to "national sites", such as Meron, Amuka, the cemetery in Tzfat, the Rambam's grave, among many others. Will a person be able to go to Meron, for example, and not have to walk through a bunch of kiosks peddling everything from candles to amulets to all sorts of mystical-type products that people don't know if they do anything or not?

If you thought the issue of women being allowed, or not allowed, to eulogize their loved ones was simply an emotional and sensitive issue, think again.

With the Moatza HaDatit, the Religious Council, having recently issued new instructions to the chevra kadishas of Israel instructing them to allow women to eulogize if they should so want, it seemed like the story was over. If a woman would get up to eulogize, the chevra kadisha would have to bite their lips and allow her to.

Turns out that it is an issue that is bigger than just emotions and sensitivity. It is now also a monetary issue.

Ladaat is reporting that a family just sued a chevra kadisha from somewhere in southern Israel  for not allowing the widow to escort the body of he rhusband to the grave, for forcing gender-segregation at the ceremony against the family's wishes, and for not allowing the daughter of the deceased to eulogize her father.

They sued the chevra kadisha for 31,900 NIS (I dont know how they came to that number).

The chevra kadisha's response was that it was not them, but it was the rabbi who insisted on all that. he does not work for them, they said, but was independent. According to the chevra kadisha, they have received the instructions regarding womens participation, and they act accordingly.

After testimony was received proving that the claims were true regarding the segregation at the ceremony and that the daughter had not been allowed to eulogize, the chevra kadisha apologized and took responsibility. They also said that they are renewing their instructions to all the rabbis affiliated with them to allow women to eulogize and be a part of the ceremony, should they want to.

The court granted the verdict in favor of the family and obligated the Moatza HaDatit to pay the full sum of 31,900 NIS.


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Half a year ago the Rabbanut decided to put an end to the complaints that women were told they could not eulogize their loved ones at funerals, as they were prevented to do so by the various chevra kadishas. Rabbi Metzger eventually publicized his opinion that women should not be prevented form eulogizing in situations where they desire to, as there is no clear halachic prohibition against it.

The Religious Council has finally published it's official decision this past week, in line with the previous statements, that women should not be prevented from eulogizing. The Mozatza HaDatit added to their instructions that in a situation in which there might be damage caused to the sensitivities of the family, she would require permission from the rav of the city.

The assumption seems to be that in secular and dati families, women will, or might, want to eulogize, while in haredi families women will not and families would oppose it anyway.

I would add that in the Eretz HaChayim cemetery outside of Bet Shemesh, I have been to many funerals in which I have seen women eulogize. I have never seen the chevra kadisha stop a woman or make a big deal about it. It could be because that is a private cemetery rather than a city cemetery, perhaps they are more accommodating - good customer service. The other option is that in Bet Shemesh people in general are more accommodating.. :-)




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It looks like the Haredi city of Harish will be built. That decision has been passed already and continues to be supported. Cities, though, do not just get built overnight. They require a lot of planning.

At a planning meeting of the region, under discussion was the allocation of land for a cemetery. An engineer of the local council stated her opposition, saying that there is no way they will allow the haredi residents of Harish to be buried next to them (i.e. the current dead residents of the area). She explained that it is illogical that people who do not serve in the army should be buried near a monument in memory of fallen soldiers (from the border patrol divisions). (source: Hamevaser via Kikar)

As an aside, I wonder if she would allow any haredim who did serve in the army to be buried there...

Obviously, such a discriminatory statement must be rejected.

On the other hand, I do not know why the haredim care so much (Hamevasser made a big deal out of it, and involved haredi councilmen to fight it) - haredim do not want to get buried near secular/irreligious/less religious people/mechalelei shabbos anyway. They have always wanted separate burial sections away from the general public, and whenever they can they work to that effect.

I guess I can say it is worth fighting over the principle of the discrimination. It will just look funny a few years down the road when they will have more clout and large enough numbers and they will want their own section for only the dead of the haredi community...

A number of years ago some people made a big deal about kohanim flying on certain flights to and from Israel. Kohanim were told to avoid certain flights, as the plane at certain times of the day to certain destinations was discovered to be flying directly over a Jewish cemetery in Holon. As tumah, impurity, rises, unless halachic solutions are implemented to redirect the tumah elsewhere, flying directly over a Jewish cemetery is a problem for kohanim.

The main solution was to fly on other flights that don't use that specific route. Other solutions, including some that were extremely sensationalist, included enclosing oneself in a body bag of sorts to prevent being affected by the impurity. Others held it was not a problem, as they held being in the plane flying overhead prevents the impurity from affecting them.

Eventually the issue went away. The airport stopped using that specific runway that was the source of the route flying over the cemetery.

It was recently discovered that some flights, specifically flights at night, are back to using the problematic runway. It seems (source: Kikar) that due to the closure of another runway that was old and in disrepair, they have once again been using the runway that causes the problem with the cemetery. After bringing the details to  the rav familiar with the issues, Rav Nissim Karelitz paskened that it is indeed a problem and kohanim should not fly into or out of Israel at night.

An added benefit of this issue was the ability to solve another problem. Many flights to Israel carry dead bodies sent from abroad for the purpose of burial in Israel. Often kohanim don't necessarily know about the presence of the bodies on their flight, rendering them into a state of impurity. Because kohanim are being told to avoid these night flights, the rabbonim are now instructing the chevra kadishas to arrange the transport of dead bodies only on these night flights.

If you need to fly at night, for whatever reason, I guess you need to pull your body bag out of storage!

Is this a kohein being prepared to fly, or is it a dead body?

Here you can see the dirt on top of the ledge of a newly placed concrete box. No body is yet buried inside this box.

These are new concrete boxes setting to dry in the molds as they are being prepared for the new section of the cemetery

These are the frames of "rebar" for reinforcing the concrete boxes when they will be poured.