[Avodah] Bizayon HaMeis

[T613K at aol.com]

From: Zev Sero <zev at sero.name>
On 20/12/2010, Moshe Y. Gluck  wrote:

> Isn't it considered Bizayon HaMeis for a [nachri] to be  involved in any
> aspect of the Kevurah?

Lechatchila, yes.   But is it me'akev?  Isn't it far better to be buried
by such a chevra,  in which such a person may well be a member, than to
just be buried by a  random funeral home doing who-knows-what?


-- 
Zev  Sero                       
zev at sero.name                 



>>>>
 
 
Practically speaking, something like 90% of the taharos we do in our chevra 
 kadisha (I live in Miami) are for non-O Jews.  If their families had a C 
or  R chevra kadisha to turn to, they might opt for that instead of an 
Orthodox  tahara.  It would be a yerida, not an aliyah, for Miami to have a  
non-Orthodox CK.  
 
In a town so small that it doesn't have a chevra kadisha, perhaps a non-O  
CK which includes people who are not halachically Jews might be preferable 
to  nothing at all -- certainly preferable to embalming or  cremation.  
 
But let us not kid ourselves that a C or R tahara is a  tahara, esp when 
the members are not Jewish, any more than you could  be yotzei kiddush by 
hearing it from a C-R convert or fulfill the mitzva of  bris by having it done 
by a C-R convert mohel (you would need hatafas dam and  new brachos),  or 
drink arba kosos using wine made by C-R converts.   Is a tahara that is not a 
tahara any better than no tahara?  Marginally  better at best.   If you argue 
that a tahara doesn't halachically  have to be done at all but is just a 
minhag and shows kovod hameis, then I guess  it doesn't matter as much who 
does it.   I'm not sure that would  be a mainstream O argument.
 

--Toby Katz
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