Many years ago, my brother-in-law Rabbi Meyer Berglas, then of Toronto, became acquainted with a Jewish convert named Rose (today Shoshana). My brother-in-law converted her. She was a very astute and bright young woman, a nephrologist at Toronto’s Northwestern University hospital.
In the beginning of their acquaintanceship, my brother-in-law asked Rose, who hailed from a very Catholic home, what it was that drew her to Judaism. She explained that, as a doctor in the hospital, she saw that the only medical students who exhibited kavod ha’meis – respecting the dead – were the ones with yarmulkes. Other students would have fun propping up cadavers into awkward positions. The Jewish students, on the other hand, showed great respect to the deceased.
My father would tell the story of how he was once at a funeral officiated by a Reform rabbi. As soon as they laid the body into the grave, the rabbi suggested that, to spare the family any further anguish, they should all leave the premises. My father was aghast, because he was familiar with the teaching of Chazal that a person must worry about his end up to the last shovelful of earth placed upon him.
So my father decided to wait around and make sure that the deceased was buried with dignity. It so happened that he hung around long enough to see the gravediggers toss their beer cans into the grave. He then saw them relieving themselves in the same pit. At that time, my father went running to the office to report what he had just witnessed. But it was too late to undo the travesty.
Kavod ha’meis knows no bounds.
We were witness to the ultimate display of kavod ha’meis with magnificent holy Israeli soldiers that painstakingly went from grave to grave to recover the remains of one Israeli soldier, the last hostage, Ron Gvili. The soldiers were so overcome with emotion that they broke into the song “Ani Maamin / I continue to believe.” What an absolute kiddush Hashem, sanctification of G-d’s name.
That is why it pains me to hear and read of certain chareidi rabbis denouncing the IDF in all sorts of reprehensible ways. I saw this week a post from one who declared that joining the IDF is like partnering with Amalek.
Have they not even the slightest notion of hakaras ha’tov, gratitude, towards the soldiers who are fighting the battle that allows yeshivos to function? And why resort to name-calling and trashing the IDF? What happened to the original claim that Torah protects Israel as does the army? That implied a mutually working relationship.
Not anymore. Now it’s the need to totally vilify the Israeli army as the lines have been drawn in the sand. I did see an interview with an American based in Israel who said that there is a growing movement among American chareidi donors to yeshivos in Israel not to provide funding to any yeshivah that disparages the army. That is welcome news.
The drafting of yeshivah students into the Israeli army is an understandable dispute. But the awful name-calling just underscores that those of that ilk have no regard for the “Torah protects” theory.
A real shame.
Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld is the Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, former President of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, and the Rabbinic Consultant for the Queens Jewish Link.
