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The Chevra Kadisha and Jewish Values (Rabbi Jonathan Kroll)

Added Feb 17, 2016 •

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okay good morning everybody going to start the sack with a 7 second session of this sub of the stricken this morning I'm going to focus little bit more on some of the Practical aspects of of to Harrah first I want to talk about what it is that we do and very practical specific terms and then I want to talk about what's our values we can learn from the Practical aspects of of the tahara process and these last moments before one is actually for the mourning process begins in halacha the morning process the actual one becomes a novel one becomes a holic mortar once the burial has taken place prior to Carrollton to give you a couple of terms so you can be aware of some important terms and we talked about Jewish morning prior to the burial one is classified not as an Avail not as a mourner but as in owning the owning is the status of somebody who is a relative prior to burial that person prior to bear interesting Lee is not allowed to perform mix notice a is not allowed to perform positive mix note  mix play that means it's a ninja trophy where it's important to realize the 09 prior to burial is not allowed to perform it so that means every day you drink a glass of water make a profit on it you don't make a bracha on the glass of water when you're in owning  you don't Darvin clearance a question but we don't do positive mix melt when you're an Onan why is it we don't deposit admits but when you're no name there's two reasons behind it one approach is you're in such a state of air and grief this point that it would be unfair to burden you with the with with these sorts of positive midst votive engage in spirituality the other theory behind it is not that you are it's not actually that you are supposed to be involved in the preparations for the burial that it's this is a busy time it's a busy time in which the loved ones the family members are working on coordinating the difficulties all involved in setting up setting up a funeral setting up the burial and so this this notion is category of an Onan is it important is important term to be aware of and I think there's something that I wanted to use that as the vehicle by which we going to start talking muscle what is it that want family members would do nowadays we do the fabric candy shop serves as really as the of The Messengers is the agents as the helpers pause the family members and the fabric katisha in consultation with the wishes of the family is involved in preparing that body for burial so knowing this Avail is what you become when you after the burial takes place that's when the laws of Avi lutha laws of morning kick in prior to that you and owning turn owning at this point they're involved heavily involved in preparations to the burial let's talk now for a few minutes about what it is that one does when you're part of the fabric of the shop when you're preparing the body for burial going to review the Tyler process if you look at the screen or talking how is I want to talk today about 4 for different things that one does for the stages that they have akathisia is involved in and I'm going to go into each one of these a little more detail and then from there we're going to talk about what I think are two really important values that we can go to distill from the Hellenic and the different rituals that were involved in preparing the body for burial for things are the cleaning of the body that is different than what the tahara is and then week the body is then closed before putting put into the into the casket and then the place in the are on the placing of other by in the cats and those are those are the stages that the chevra kadisha is involved in when they show up to the funeral home to perform at the house what I want to do with you just so you some more understanding about what it is that's taking place in the big picture so we can talk with some the values we learn from them Sunday when we go on the field trip we're going to be seeing in like you know what the actual site in which some of these things take place so it'll be a little more you understand a little bit better what we're talking about once we hit because we're going to go through this process right now and talk about them questions stop about the first step which is which is the cleaning of the body know you have to understand when the members the cover candy shop show up to the funeral home it is turning on the copper caddy show the community difference between Reserve difference or costumes that I'm going to speak about the process that I was involved in I'm in the fabric of the show that I worked in there were three men who would show up to the funeral home I'm at a particular time is always in the evening you could be 9 at night we would show up to the funeral home that you would wash your hands you would wash your hands both you know cleanliness as well as the till I die but I'll probably wash her hands put on on cervix surgical scrubs you put on put on and you put on gloves and this point you are prepared want to perform the for the process what is it that we do in this process the first step is I said was the cleaning of the body the three gentlemen myself and my two off usually unnamed I didn't know the names of any of the of most people I work in the heifer with was like this Anonymous sort of thing you show up no talking just get to work and respectfully take care of the of the deceased first thing as you clean the body it's a little bit I should say unsettling and overwhelming the first time you do it when you're confronted with the reality of death and I think I mentioned you some for the first time you do it at the Hara it is exceptionally overwhelmed I don't my first time I was shaking serve as the assistant to the other two members who are much more sort of a proficient of more experience but it's a little bit overwhelming and that's the supposed to be you then start with the cleaning of the body what do you do the members of fabri take we would do as we have like white pieces of I cannot walk cotton sheets that would be in strips of cotton sheets with water and what we would do is you have the body of the person turn on what is a what is a like no look like a gurney that's tilted slightly downwards so that water would then that you're using to clean the body played with drain off of the off of the gurney into into a into a sink and you'd wash the body now it sounds like a little bit strange perhaps that you're washing a body of somebody who is who is no longer with us why do you need to wash their body numbers see them again they're going to be put in the ground under dirt in which their body will then decompose why is it that was spending so much time cleaning the spot as we have talked about that but what is it that we would do you would sit there for one one of the numbers the first take will take a cup of water pour the water on the persons persons like a head on their hair and we would one of us reporter water another person would take a this like a centrally cool washcloth and clean not self help you clean the person if there were any of those dirt you would make sure that any sort of. Any sort of you know there was if there was some times surgical tape that have been on a person's arm you would rub that off off and that was what you spend time doing when you're cleaning when you're cleaning the body yes tell you what are the natural that's so some I don't like the other wounds of good question within a second one of the it's all that right now I'll get to that talk about the ceiling of postmortem bleeding besides the sew-in and the most Pleasant I should say or the the easier kinds of tires you perform when you perform of the tahara on somebody who clearly was you know you get the feeling was live the full life with somebody did the body had no signs of trauma partisan you heard the story person died in his sleep and live device life that's an easy to have to hire to fill to do not just emotionally but also practically speaking you just clean the body and it's nice and simple often bother to the bleeding of a second before we what it means we do besides the cleaning with the with the with the cotton and the water one of the members would take a you know either Q-tip or sometimes even like a toothpick and you would clean the fingernails and the toenails of the deceased looked  they look nice you wanted the body to look beautiful to look clean to look like somebody if a loved one was there what would they be thinking when they see their their loved one who has passed on that's the type of thing that members of the kidneys are always thinking I always imagined to myself what if I was standing in the corner watching somebody take care of and clean the body of somebody who I love I always imagined that there was somebody there watching me is that I would treat that person exactly has I would want them to be treating one somebody somebody who I love and there's and there's a real process of cleaning and the cleaning let me say it's not and sometimes it's I described it when it's nice and neat often when one arrives at the hospital home from the hospital where are they moving under the only treatment and that may be coming from a nursing home with her silent treatment  sometimes the body is not all it's not as  neat and clean as would be an in a situation I talked about with somebody died in his died in never sleep so what that means is it was common one of the things you would do when you get used to this once you do it a couple times you would clean the front of the body also one member of the Cyber would hold with pulled the body on its side and another member would clean the backside of the of the person which often was the case where do you be cleaning feces as well from the person's body known it when at the end of life a lot of bodily you know what are not operating exactly as they should be in so that was also part of it and it's type of the first time you do it it's a little bit overwhelming but then you sort of realized imagine that the loved one was standing there on the side watching me how would I want somebody to treating my loved one and that's why I and other members that are several always considered a work bleeding the halacha demands of us that we bury the entire person that means that if there's blood if I'm cleaning the body and there's some blood let's say there was a there was a there was an IV would have been put into the person and there was some you know which ride blood in the person's arm so whereas the rest of the cleaning we clean the body and you take the moles that you're done that you use and they're disposed of afterwards if there was blood on the person what we do is you clean the blood with that strip of cotton no Fabric and you take that piece of cotton fair and you put it in the casket you put it in the Autumn because that is to be buried along with the person because the blood is considered to be heart of the person who self and so sometimes if it's dry blood in his easy often and I was involved in some of these but not so many you would have a situation where there was a lot of trauma before death and the body would if you were to really wash the body well with of water Raven to perform at the higher Wichita II it would be impossible to do so without causing  blood to be lost to be trained to flow and to be disposed of in those situations you would try as best as you could to seal the wound sometimes it's dumb different cover have different Customs some use like a little bit of blue or some sort of adhesive to close a wound because they don't have the natural coagulants that work in your body to seal mom just to seal wounds when you're alive don't work when you're no longer alive so we have some sort of artificial to close wounds if that worked that was you do when you continue with the cleaning process if you get it if that if you were unable to those serious trauma sometimes it would happen is we would not be able to perform the rest of the Tyra as we normally would okay answer your question great question a Pepper's do you have difficulty but my experience if it was a simple to hire up with three men who had done this before know what they're doing all the process would take under an hour to take about 45 minutes or so once all three of us arrived  if it was little more complicated it can take up to an hour and a half to two hours that's not the time we were talking about okay let's talk about my next thing I want I want to talk about is the actual tahara itself as I said the cleaning of the body is not the that's preparing the body for the tire up the tahara itself is done one of two ways might have did not have we did not have a Mikvah in the go home we had was this is my thinking most heifers operate what we would do is after the bodies prepared for burial prepared for the Hara you feel three large buckets of water which is about 8 or 9 gallons is what we require you fill up 3 buckets of water and then what you do is to purify the former what we do is we have basically one person pours one bucket starting the top go to the feet of the person so you start when the person gets to about when person number one hit with bucket number one of the water gets to about the middle or towards the end of the body of the of the deceased what's the number to goes and takes that bucket and continues to pour and get over the person as well and then they and then the third other words all three buckets of water are poured continue over over the person afterwards when the tire is done we say Tahoe who that the the the person is considered to have the to holler at that point after so when you can lower the person into the into the that's at my at my at my at my at the homes that I worked out for the person would be would be lowered into until Nova  they have like that so there are one of the homes I was at they I saw they had the they have the the mechanism for it's like a basically it's like a something I can operate table that set on a system of hydraulics that you can wheel over on above and mcfoot and it would and you could and would be low and we lower down into into the neck you couldn't care you wouldn't be able to physically hold it it's it's very hard to do question if someone has like I'm in like put into their body type undergoing treatment at over there not just like Erica cell again I'll type up the practice in my in my account from this was not on what we would have is sometimes you would have liked it might be an IV it might be the lines for for chemotherapy treatment that would be in the person when you get to the hot when you get to the Sabra the more experienced members look of raw some number of Waltham doctors also new weather if you removed the if you was this the type of line that if you removed it it would cause bleeding and therefore you would not do it or is this type of line that you removed it it would it would it would not cause bleeding if it would cause bleeding what we would often do is you cut the line at the the tubing let's say at the at the base and you would and you leave the you leave whatever is in the person's body is to be necessary to not cause more bleeding oh I don't know if that okay I never I never encounter that's choice if you had if you have a cat's eye Tsum assumed they would I send it cut it cut it off cut it and tie it  I don't know I'm not sure I don't share I'm not sure what they would do with the cast trauma is like really great like in is almost like suicide bombings about the time we're going to question Obama. That's great I'm sure these terms is what we do next this is after the body has had the cleaning got two bodies have the Harem or my money adversity to Hera what we do that as we dress the body  it's not so easy to dress a body of somebody who's not alive  there is thanks a process you have to learn how to do it you can put a shirt on if you have one one of the members of however would hold the arms up another member would put the shirt on would put basically if you take a look at the screen there are basically you put a head covering over the person you'd put that's what them it's not fit you'd put pair of pants on them if no sign have a shirt we go on the person a Kittle robe and then be a belt that we and the person is doing this dressed in linen simple white Lynn got all the more the second then the last part of the process I saw is the placing in the our own is the play place in the casket this would be the source of the kind of thing that involve a little bit of a I say dexterity you have to be a little bit if that's some practice in this that you would take the the journey on which can you person it was was was lying what you when we were performed Atara they would be on the ground and then pull the casket over to write turn on another sort of Garnia Jason a little bit below and then the members of the cover of the three my case was the three men we would pick the body and place the body into the into the into the casket the person placement casket within within be wrapped in a whites of is a man he'd be wearing on his towel eat or that we had there we miss you to cut off one of the city's not off-limits naftali and we buried in a plain Pine casket not an elaborate sort of casket the minjas gently put in a plain Pine casket a couple questions when you to start another clothing that you put on  what is the relationship between there is to it you are meant it's meant to mimic to an extent the way the Quan the purity of the cohanim when we wouldn't leave pass on ya you do try the body prior to the tahara and after skirts no women women with the say it's the same nasyon somebody said to me while I guess that's like a not a it's a it's a poor joke but somebody sitting out joke someone once, to me that this is the first time this this woman ever were her pants at this point she was a sperm when we were all like yeah go ahead I'm just like I'm describing what the men here in America and in Israel in in yerushalaim the mean hug is not to have the purse buried in an around not in a casket doesn't give Ben 10 Avengers been to a funeral in you shall I'm on the body is wrapped in the Soviet and in the man with the wrapped in a in a in the news Barry directly into the ground not in a catamount so you're going to college but for a woman like the distance in the soul I'll be honest with you it is it's a little bit it's a more startling I've been the funerals and American funerals in Israel it's a more startling sort of Guardians when you're Israel youth your America there's something that's a little bit almost like detach your little removed when you see it's like you're putting a box in the ground when you're in Israel its feet you feel a little bit more you see the most of the Contours of the body and that's that be a little more to be a little more startling I'm not sure what the source of the minute why the Minogue in Israel's not is not as not to be recast Mason to do with the canoe shove land of Israel I think Scentsy once you see some of the the the the actual rooms with this is done to get a sense of it on Monday I want to talk to you but I think are really important lesson alarm clock values you learn from this process to Harrah two things I wanted one of them is the treatment of all people regardless of status everybody's equal there's something like pretty remarkable about that that I want to emphasize whether you are the chief Rabbi most simple whether you're the person who is the most wealthy the most poor whether you are whatever social status religious status what is the you do whoever was that you were in your life we were all treated exactly the same I'm going to talk about that in the moment what is the value inn on top of the Dignity of the human body as an expression of a Jewish focus on the Holiness of Life on top of 2nd I want to share with you a quick little piece of gemara talks about why it is that were buried in these linen shrouds the Camorra says but we shown up if first height of hooks automated cash elevator Mamita tell it used to be the time of the time of the mishnah much more what's a Colt for families to bury their dead then it was to lose them to mourn there to mourn their loss why was burial more challenging right oddsshark revive mini Hino tow behind people in sometimes that you know I can pay for it I'm going to run away let somebody else deal with this person the burial prices were to make rubber very expensive they waited Adorn them in various ways with like you know with whether it be any more fancy sorts of burial practices vietsub peachton what Robin gamliel said to his he saw his going on he said you know what I myself I'm the leader I will be buried in the most simple white linen shrouds that aquarium are in piston or in white linen I reach them in the and after that it was decreed that everybody would do the same thing no difference in status every single person is going to be clothed exactly the same you cannot tell the difference between anybody when they are bearing taken care of after they've died and when we are burying them value want to talk about is this idea of the Dignity of human life as an emphasis on Holiness the Pacific and safer devaram says you familiar with this bus I don't either, with a smile that are too high in vomit at 11 give you the choice between death and life how brajkovic Lala between the second course Lemont atavas are ever the purpose that I would just say what is like one major theme of Jewish what of Judaism throughout the ages it's this notion of choosing life of taking our mundane regular life treating it with a sense of Holiness I want to talk about then first the last couple of minutes the how this plays out in the process of the tahara hear that the possessions better with the body in contrast to what you've seen in the ancient world weather was tombs of the Pharaohs or even more modern times when people are buried with some of their most beloved possessions and there are in your new treated with a with almost like it sent to someone listen to materialism involved in in the burial we don't we don't do that all the idea of the dignified treatment of the body The Way We are so Singley you know cleaning preparing taking that body that I mean ice is what I felt sometimes I look at the body when you get to the tahara can you look at it you look at the person and they be there be there be like you know Dierks some dried blood and the hair would be all tussle and they didn't look the way that's a family member would want their double oven to look and then you do the cleaning and you do it too and you finish the end in the fabric you look at yourself those three guys there and you feel great about yourself because you look at this this person looks Wonder they look so that looks Serene and beautiful and you took somebody you walk into the room and you felt awful and then you walked out of the room you feel and you feel great this dignified treatment of the body I'd like to argue is is really about what it's really about guys in this world this is what our focus is on we're all about making our lives holy not worrying about alarm haha that's not our concern we worry about this world and the next World takes care of itself the purpose of the Torah is to Tay as ask in this world with our bodies to perform its note they're given to us to make this world a tremendous Place baseball the better place and by tree body with substance eyes in the afterlife in the greatness of the body and what we've done in the Dignity of it this is I think let's communicate what up what I think is a great value I met you the bitching today about who I am your vehicle said your fish are happy to vallecito Villa Nicole set alarm  better to have one moment of what or pens are good deeds in this world in the whole world to come even though the affair stop at Sephora by me, even though the Bliss of Allama bar is greater than that in this world but we're supposed to be involved in performing in performing its vote in performance and do a making I'm making this world a better place and I think that by sort of them and emphasizing the care with which we take care of the body that really trying to push to mix that point and really emphasizes that this world is about doing what we can to make it a lot better in the emphasis of the Holiness of life as opposed to an overemphasis on the Holiness and a culture of death we're about making this world a really holy place you know it that's light for the sample you all know what is the chief form of Tomb of ritual ritual impurity in Judaism it's the dead body once we are on a to live life to its fullest and to perform it's about to make this world a better place that's a source of tune-up we treat the body with dignity because of what served how it served us in our lifetime to be able to make this world better wasn't improve upon the world but in death we traded we had recognized that we have to take care of it but they're is a level of Tomb of involved because that emphasizes that our lives are what matter and not what we are in death one of the beautiful Customs that we had at the Sahara when we were finished the three men we'd leave and say a prayer and ask forgiveness you put your hands on the unknown ask forgiveness of the person in case we treated him without the dignity that he deserved and it was like a powerful thing you're talking to Leon Fountain to the to the deceased asking him for forgiveness I wasn't from a FEMA and then walk out the three-man we walk out go to the parking lot where we all have House Park one person who always been designated as the guy who brought the bottle of water we would then in the parking lot wash each other's hands with the bottle of water we would not each other and say we leave without saying a word except for saying cheese cool image so you should have the don't to do Mormons. Thank you very much

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The Chevra Kadisha and Jewish Values (Rabbi Jonathan Kroll)

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