The second-year rabbinic class already got homework for one of our classes, even though our first day isn't til tomorrow. 200 pages of reading on funerals and Jewish mourning practices. It's in-depth, practical, philosophical, and very very long.
I love it.
I think the "twisted" comment came up though when I was reading some of it aloud, and he said that I had way too much glee in my voice. Which I was, which in truth probably wasn't very suited to the occasion... but I'm finally learning what I came to rabbinic school for! It's exciting.
And just to share something that I thought was fascinating, this is from page 18 of Maurice Lamm's The Jewish Way in Death and Mourning. This excerpt discusses why Judaism is against embalming.
"The art of the embalmer is the art of complete denial. Embalming seeks to create an illusion, and to the extent that it succeeds, it only hinders the mourner from recovering from his grief. It is, on the contrary, an extreme dishonor to disturb the peace in which a person should be permitted to rest eternally.
"It is indeed paradoxical that Western man, nourished on the Christian concept of the sinfulness of the body, which is considered the prison of the soul, should, in death, seek to adorn it and make it beautiful. Surely, the emphasis on the body in the funeral service serves to weaken the spiritual primacy and traditional religious emphasis on the soul."
I wonder; what does Judaism explicitly say about the relationship between the body and the soul? It wasn't in any of our literature. If a loved one dies and we think the soul is gone, then why does it matter what happens to the corporeal form? It's not the person anyway. And if the body and the soul are intertwined, as this passage implies, then I don't understand why it makes a difference. One respects the soul by the eulogy, prayers, etc. And one respects the body by treating it with care, which some can argue is embalming. I personally happen to agree with Lamm's assertions; I just feel that there are a few steps missing in how he got there.
Thoughts, comments? I'm interested. I'd write more, but it's way past my bedtime.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
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My first funeral in Israel, only a year after I'd arrived, was an awful shock because I was not prepared for it. My friend's grandfather, whom I called Abba, died. At the cemetery where mourners were gathered, the body, wrapped only in a winding sheet was brought out of the purification room on a stretcher carried by eight men. No casket. The contours of the body were clearly outlined. We all followed the body to the gravesite. Prayers were said and sung. Then the body was slid down off the stretcher into the open grave. In that process, the top of the winding sheet opened up and Abba's grey hair was exposed. I could feel my heart beating so fast and hard that it almost choked me.
Since then, I have given much thought to Israel's manner of burial. And that forced me to think deeply about life and death.
Abba's body, the person I knew, was being nestled into the soft earth to become a part of it. "The person I knew..?" No, that wasn't right. The PERSON I knew was still very much a part of me, and I was still feeling his presence and his love. So the body, the shell, the respository was being buried but it wasn't Abba. Abba's Life, his Soul, his Spirit, his Essence -- no matter what you want to call it -- lives on in me. It sounds easy, but it was difficult to reach the realization that I could part with the physical embodiment of Abba; that in so doing I was strengthening my heartfelt bonds with him.
In fact, it's a comfort for me to know that my own body which has served me so well, and betrayed me so often will finally become part of the earth itself which sustains us all. And, freed by death, my Life/Soul/Spirit/Essence will be as the breezes themselves, influences touching nerve endings of which I'll be unaware.
That's just for starters...
Your Savta
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