Hurry-Up Burials
Everybody knows of the mitzvah of יןƒלָ ̇ ‡ֹלֹו ָ̇ל¿בƒנ, that it is forbidden to allow a dead body to remain without burial, even overnight (Ki Setzei 21:23). Unless it’s l’chvod hameis; if there’s some important reason that you have to hold off – so you wait, but otherwise we don’t delay. The Torah says, ‡ּהוַה םֹוּיַּבּוּנ∆רּ¿ב¿ ּ̃ƒ ̇ רֹבוָ ̃ יּƒכ – bury the meis on that same day (ibid.). As soon as possible, bury the body.
Now, if it’s a mitzvah, then the Am Yisroel fulfills it. Every synagogue rabbi knows how these questions come up all the time – “Should we delay the levayah and wait for this and this person to arrive from overseas?” – and the loyal nation follows the Torah law. If it’s a command in the Torah then we do it.
Decree of Decaying
And yet it's interesting to note that in this case, Hakadosh Baruch Hu didn’t leave it entirely up to us – He did something that encourages us to bury a dead body right away. The Gemara in Mesichta Pesachim (54b) tells us that ַיחƒר¿סַּי∆ׁ ̆ ̇≈ּמַה לַﬠ רַזָּ‚ – Hakadosh Baruch Hu made a decree, a law of nature by His decree, that a dead body putrefies. As soon as a person dies, the body begins to decompose.
So you’ll say, “What’s the chiddush? Doesn’t everything decompose? Don’t all living creatures decompose after death?” The answer is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu decreed something most unusual in the case of a human being. There is no animal carcass that when it begins to putrefy, is as unpleasant as a human body. You know, a piece of meat, if you take it from the butcher shop and bring it home and put it on the dining room table and let it remain for a couple of days, it’ll be very unwelcome. But the human body, after death, is much more unwelcome! After the spirit of life departs, a human body decomposes so quickly and in such an unpleasant manner that makes it abhorrent. A human corpse is the most undesirable object to have around. As it putrefies, it has the most offensive of all odors.
Forced Burials
Now, there has to be a reason for this. It’s an arrangement that Hakadosh Baruch Hu introduced into the darkei hateva, into the processes of nature, for a purpose. And actually, it’s such an important purpose that the Gemara says that even if it wouldn’t have been so in the darkei hateva – even if it wouldn’t have been needed for the functioning of Olam Hazeh – Hakadosh Baruch Hu would have stepped in and would have said it should be so. יןƒּ„ רַז¿‚ƒנ ‡ֹלּוּלƒ‡ה∆י¿הƒּי∆ׁ ̆ ‡ּהו - it has to be this way (ibid.)
It must be so? What’s the reason for that? Why is it so important that the body should become abhorrent? So the Chachomim tell us that it’s in order to encourage burying it as soon as possible. Yes, there’s a mitzvah; it’s a command of the Torah – ‡ּהוַה םֹוּיַּבּוּנ∆רּ¿ב¿ ּ̃ƒ ̇ רֹבוָ ̃. But it’s so important, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu went out of His way, k’viyachol, to make a dead human body most offensive in order that we should be in a hurry to bury it; so that we’d be encouraged to get the body out of sight as soon as possible.
But the question arises, what's the hurry? What’s the big rush? Actually, wouldn't it be a good idea if the body could remain intact for a long time? He would lie on the bed and people would be able to come and talk to him, to ask mechilah. “I’m so sorry I didn't treat you right when you were alive. Please be moichel me.” It would be a good opportunity for many people. Here he’s lying on his bed – he’s lying in state – and the wife comes in; “I'm so sorry Jack. Forgive me for all the wrong things I did for you. Because of me, you had to work so many extra hours in the factory, just so I could buy chandeliers and drapes.”
Enjoying Bubby Forever
Visitors would come, children should come, grandchildren. If he has talmidim they'll come to his bed, they’ll look at the rebbe, the dead body, and they’ll cry and beg forgiveness for not learning enough from him while they had the chance.
Even more than just asking forgiveness. Why can’t we just keep the meis around? After all, what is more beloved than some near one, a dear relative, who passed away? Wouldn’t the family find it more to their liking if they could cherish his presence always? Let’s say after their mother passed away, so they could ensconce her in a beautiful box with a glass lid and keep her in the living room next to the couch. They could enjoy her even more than before. She can't talk now, she doesn’t spend any money either, and she’d also be painted up to look more beautiful than she did in true life. And so she’d be sitting or standing in that beautiful box and the family would forever enjoy her company.
So why does Hashem want us to bury the body so quickly? We think it would be quite nice if we didn’t have to do a hurry-up funeral.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
And so the Gemara says it’s not what we think. It’s what Hakadosh Baruch Hu thinks. And as much as you might think it’s good to keep the body around, He thinks not. He thinks that seeing a dead body is very dangerous.
Now listen to what the reason is. There’s a very big peril in letting a dead body lie around because a dead body is a testimony against hasharas hanefesh, the eternity of the soul. Seeing a corpse is a contradiction to the principle that man lives on after death. People look at the body and say, “That's the end of a human being. It’s finished now. No more.” No matter how much your seichel tells you that the neshamah lives forever, when you look at a dead body it hits you between the eyes: ‘Look; he’s dead now. He’s finished.’
Yes, we believe that the body is sacred; we believe that it harbors a soul that will continue to exist but here you see it’s not so! His eyes of flesh are staring but they cannot see. The face looks exactly like a living person but it has no expression. It’s a dead-pan face. And the more you look at a dead body, the more you’re weakened in your belief in Olam Haba. It’s a fact that people who experienced it relate.
The Sin of Seeing
I once came to visit a man who was sitting shivah, nit eingedacht, for his father. I was sitting next to him and he broke down weeping. He said, “That's the end?”
I said, “What do you mean ‘that's the end’? You're a frum Jew. You know it's not the end.”
He said, “I know but I can't help it.” He told me that it hurts him so much because at the time when he saw his father lying on the floor, he felt in his heart that it was really the end, that his father wouldn't have any hasharas hanefesh. He looked at the dead body and he saw his father and he saw nothing. “I need some reinforcement in my belief in Olam Haba,” he told me. He always believed, but the fact that he saw his father dead created an ordeal, a test of the emunah.
It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t believe in Olam Haba. This Jew that I visited, he didn't come out with a denial of hasharas hanefesh. In principle, there's no question he would give his life for it. But in emotions, in feeling, in actual living, in daas, it was so remote from him that he couldn’t withstand the ordeal when he was actually faced with death. Something in his emunah weakened because of that sight. “It’s over; finished.” That’s how it looks to the eyes.
The Empty Overcoat
Now we know it’s not true. A dead body is just the shell; it’s the overcoat. You take off the overcoat and put it on a hanger and you walk out, so does that prove, should that convince a man that the one who was inside the overcoat was never there, that he was only an overcoat from the beginning?
Of course it shouldn’t, but if you keep on looking at an overcoat and you never again see the person - the person now let’s say is in Florida where he doesn’t wear an overcoat anymore. And he gets along quite well without it; he’s very happy in Florida. But you keep on looking at the overcoat, so you get the impression that there never was anything more than air inside the overcoat.
And that's the biggest falsehood there is! The truth of mankind is that this world is only a preparation for the World to Come and death is not the end of life. And we have to live with the strongest conviction, with the clearest understanding and emotional conviction, that the meis is happy now. He is glorying in all the great achievements that he gained for himself by a life of virtuous living.
Birthdays and Yahrtzeits
Of course we weep, but even our weeping is only a ceremony. Like the Rambam says (Avel 13:11-12), that we shouldn't have stony hearts; we have to train ourselves to have hearts of sympathy. But in reality, after we think it over, there's nothing to pity the dead man. On the contrary, he has lived a life of success and now he’s living just the same.
Like it states, ֹו ̇יƒׁ ̆‡≈ר≈מ רָבָּ„ ̇יƒרֲחַ‡ בֹטו – the end of a virtuous man’s life is better than the beginning (Koheles 7:8). We don't celebrate birthdays; we commemorate the yahrtzeit because he died successfully. When a ship sets out on a voyage we don't celebrate because who knows what's going to happen? An ocean voyage is dangerous. But when the ship returns to port loaded down with merchandise, with wealth, then we're jubilant. We welcome him home again.
And so it’s not finished; the dead body is not the end. It’s only his overcoat that he took off. He left his overcoat in the lobby; he checked it in, and he went now into the banquet hall to enjoy the happiness that was prepared for him!
Kavod Hameis: a New Pshat
But it’s extremely difficult to understand that if you’ll keep your eyes on the overcoat. The dead body is a tremendous confrontation to your emunah in Olam Haba. Especially if you’re sentimental and you want to keep the body around in a glass box in your parlor. Every morning you come in and the husband says to his former wife, “Good morning, dear.” Each time he takes a look, his heart sinks within him. “That’s what I’m going to be, so what’s the use? All life is a failure. Ach, there’s no use to trying to do anything in the world.” He’ll fight that feeling, absolutely. But it’s there. It’s lurking.
And because the Afterlife is such an important principle of Torah living, of our Torah ideology, we have to fight against any falsehood that might weaken that attitude. And so the Torah says, רֹבוָ ̃ יּƒכ ‡ּהוַה םֹוּיַּבּוּנ∆רּ¿ב¿ ּ̃ƒ ̇ – bury the corpse on that day. And in order that we should do it as soon as possible, Hakadosh Baruch Hu encourages it with His darkei hateva. As much as possible the Am Hashem should go through life without focusing on the sight of a body without life, without vitality.
And that’s what kavod hameis really means. We think kavod hameis is because it’s a shame to allow him to remain unburied; he spoils. But that’s not it. It is a kavod hameis to get him out of sight in order that we should remember that he is not dead. That’s the greatest kavod – he lives on! And in order for our daas, for our emotional conviction in Olam Haba to operate to the highest degree, the first thing is to get the dead body out of sight. Because nothing will help as long as it’s there. The longer it’s around, the less you’re going to have emunah in the World to Come.
