Touching a dead body

shabbatiscoming

Mon, Apr 10 2023, 8:45 am

PinkFridge wrote:

This might have been a different kind of levaya. Rachmana litzlan.

What do you mean a different kind of levaya? In israel there is no box. At the funeral they are covered in shrowds and usually somerhing else.

PinkFridge

Mon, Apr 10 2023, 8:47 am

zoom wrote:

I feel disrespectful for mourners to say this.
But, halochos still apply.

My father said the halochos are what saved him when his fathee died young.
That, and his Rov who held his hand all the way.

The halachos are brilliant.
There are basic halachos, and lot of nuances and minor differences in some of the application.

PinkFridge

Mon, Apr 10 2023, 8:57 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

What do you mean a different kind of levaya? In israel there is no box. At the funeral they are covered in shrowds and usually somerhing else.

Not everyone's been to such a tragic levaya.
Don't get me wrong. Levayas of older people can be tragic too. And even when a person lives to a very ripe old age with all their faculties, the family is fully entitled to be in serious pain too. But this was a very different type of levaya.

Motherhood

Mon, Apr 10 2023, 9:08 am

When I had a stillbirth, I was told that I may not hug or kiss, but was allowed to touch and hold.
I remember learning in high school that we don’t kiss a deceased cuz it’s like avodah zarah. (I don’t remember if that’s also the case for hugging)

shabbatiscoming

Mon, Apr 10 2023, 9:10 am

PinkFridge wrote:

Yes, 100%. Soneone in efrat streamed the l3vaya and I watched it and that is exactly what I told my husband.
All funerals are sad. But this was another level of sadness.

meme6

Mon, Apr 10 2023, 9:23 am

It’s only not allowed to touch a dead body on Shabbos then it’s muktza otherwise it’s fine

pause

Mon, Apr 10 2023, 2:05 pm

AFAIK not touching the body is not a matter of halacha, but rather "hechere zachen." It is said (don't know where but I can try to find out) that touching the niftar causes tza'ar to the neshama, so we avoid any touching that is not needed for the mes itself, meaning related to the burial, etc.

deena19k

Tue, Apr 11 2023, 4:34 am

I'm sorry but I really feel like this thread is in bad taste. If ch"v anyone is ever in a situation where they need to know the actual halacha, they can ask on their own. There is no reason to discuss or analyze a family in grief.

NotInNJMommy

Tue, Apr 11 2023, 4:39 am

I never appreciated on an emotional level the element of kriah. Intellectually, totally. The first time I felt it was years ago after the Mumbai terror attacks, when the final situation at Nariman House was confirmed. On some visceral level, I felt like I wanted to tear kriah. I didn't, of course, but I, for the first time, felt this fundamental feeling of acute grief. I can only imagine what it's like for actual close loved ones experiencing such grief in the wake of a tragedy and trauma.

shabbatiscoming

Tue, Apr 11 2023, 5:21 am

NotInNJMommy wrote:

So interesting. And for the Dee family, they did not do kriya as it is a chag. They will only do that after pesach is over.