[Avodah] Rachel Immeinu and Gaza: Doreish Issues

[Zev Sero]

rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com wrote:
> " Hiskashrus [bond] with him, and pay no attention to the lures of the evil inclination, and you send the request to the gravesite of the [Previous] Rebbe, my father-in-law, of blessed memory, the [Previous] Rebbe will find a way to answer you." [Igros Kodesh, Vol. 3, page 266] Isn't this a problem of Doresh el Hamaisim? —Yoni, New York, NY"
> 
> 
> Consider the thread of harchakos re: yichud and the blatant lack of
> harchakos re: Doreish el hameisim.  Even if one pilpuls that this
> halachically OK;  how can this be haskafically OK?

1. Because it's part of the Jewish mesorah, going back to Yosef and Kalev;
it's what Jews do and have always done, and the wonder is at those who want
to turn it into some sort of issur.  As the Zohar says explicitly, when the
world needs rain, you take a sefer torah and go to the cemetery and wake up
the dead to ask them to intercede for the living; and if you don't do that,
they won't know you need help and won't be able to do anything for you.

2. What's the comparison to giluy arayos, from which we are explicitly
commanded to keep far away?  How many harchokos do we make from basar
bechalav?  Only those that are practically necesary.  Two strangers can
eat meat and milk at the same table, and think nothing of it.  No harchaka.


-- 
Zev Sero                    A mathematician is a device for turning coffee
zev at sero.name               into theorems.                   - Paul Erdos