By Rabbi Reuven Semah
Years ago, there was a city in Lithuania called Kovno. In order to prevent the desecration of the Jewish cemetery, it was necessary to evacuate the graves and transfer them to a safe place. The Jewish workers discovered two people buried there whose bodies were still completely intact.
When this occurs, this is a clear sign that the person was very righteous. It was revealed that one was the Rabbi of Kovno, and the other was known as the “Jewish soldier,” and on his tombstone was written, “Here lies the kosher Jewish soldier.”
Their curiosity drove them to find out what was so special about him to have caused his body to be preserved completely. It was written in the town records that this soldier served in the gentile army. He refused to eat anything unkosher while serving in the army, and never ate any food from the army. He subsisted solely on raw fruits and vegetables.
One day his fellow soldiers decided that they would force him to become impure at all costs. They took some hot unkosher soup and tried to force him to eat it. The holy soldier refused to take it. They continued to force him until he choked on the soup and died.
His sacrifice for the purity of kosher food sanctified his body to such a level that the body remained whole and perfect. How fortunate we are to have the opportunity to purify ourselves by eating only the purest of kosher foods. Shabbat Shalom.
Reprinted from the Parashat Re’eh 5782 email of Rabbi David Bibi’s Shabbat Shalom from Cyberspace.
