[Avodah] R' Nissim Karelitz's Beis Din: Kohanim cannot fly from Ben Gurion for the next few weeks

[Eli Turkel via Avodah]

<<If it is really a problem for a Kohen to fly over a cemetary then I don't
understand how Kohanim fly anywhere. Take a flight from Israel to NY. The
plane flies over much of Western Europe and England, there are any number
of Jewish cemetaries there who says that the plane doesn't fly over one of
them. When they get close to NY all of the flights to JFK fly over Long
Island which has a number of large Jewish cemeteries, Again, who says that
the planes don't fly over them. Since it's an issur d'oraysa we should say
sefeka d'raysa l'chumra.

I have a few questions related to this.
Is the problem with the Holon cemetary because the plane flies low over teh
cemetery (close to takeoff)?
Is there any sevara to say that the tumah doesn't reach the height of
planes to 30,000+ feet? If not what about in orbit? What about on the moon?
>>

first not everyone agrees with the psak of R Karelitz. Among the reasons
are precisely that perhaps tumah does not really go on "forever". In
addition to questions about the moon how about accounting for the curvature
of the earth?
As we have have pointed out in the past numerous poskim state that
:ma-shehu" on Pesach should not be taken literally, i.e. a nano particle of
chametz is not prohinted. Similarly tumah rises as far as a person can see
with a naked eye. One woulkd need to check how high the plane is over the
Holon cemetery I have also seen other reasons for allowing a cohen to fly
over a cemetery.
RMF says that there is a question of the status of the modern  materials
that a plane is made out of - are they halachic metals?

In any case the problem with the Holon cemetery is that the flight path is
well known. It is highly unlikely to be flying over a Jewish grave in
Europe and we wouldn't prohibit the flight based on a far fetched safek.
see for example
http://www.dailyhalacha.com/m/halacha.aspx?id=1026
a detailed discussion - in Hebrew appears in

http://www.elhamikdash.com/49876/%D7%98%D7%99%D7%A1%D7%AA-%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%94%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%9C-%D7%A7%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D---%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%91-%D7%93%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%90%D7%9C-%D7%95%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%A3-

As a generality I highly recommend the site of olamot that has hundreds of
topics with sources.
The main problem with the site is that each discussion is a collection of
source material with no connection between the various materials
For the specific topic of kohanim flying over a cemetery see
http://olamot.net/shiur/%D7%98%D7%99%D7%A1%D7%AA-%D7%9B%D7%94%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%9D



-- 
Eli Turkel
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