Rabbi Shlomo Kluger zt"l
Rabbi of Brezany, Brody. Author: Sefer Hachaim, Ha’elef Lecha Shlomo. 30 Sivan 5629 (1869)
Rav Shlomo Kluger of Brod was known for his fierce opposition against the enlightenment movement, whose members called themselves Maskilim. The Maskilim began changing old-age customs, including the customs involving in burying the dead. They began transporting the dead in a wagon, instead of the customary method of carrying them in their hands and walking on foot during the funeral. When Rabbi Shlomo Kluger became aware of this, he forbade anyone who was carried by wagon to be brought to Kever Yisrael, Jewish burial. Instead, they would have to be buried among non-Jews.
When the Maskilim heard about Rav Kluger’s decision, they started a court case against him in the non-Jewish court. The judge ruled that the dead should be transported in wagons until the case was heard. The heads of the Torah community came to Rav Kluger with heavy hearts, and told him about the judge’s decision. They asked him what to do when the next funeral became imminent.
Rav Kluger answered them, “I promise you that until the judge will legally allow us to continue with our custom, no one from the community in Brod will die!”
Three months passed, and not only were there no deaths what so ever during this period. When the court case was finally heard, the judge asked Rav Kluger, “bring me a proof from the Torah, that the dead body is carried specifically in one’s arms.” The Rav immediately replied, “It’s written in Parshas Vayechi, ‘And they carried Yaakov their father.’”
The judge accepted the proof and said, “The Rav is right, that’s how it’s written, to carry in the hands and not in a wagon.”
Rabbi Shlomo Kluger was a world renowned Rabbinical leader and many difficult questions came to him. One became famous for his powerful psak din that aroused a huge commotion in the Jewish world. It concerned the case of a widow of a Jew who died and didn’t have any children or brothers. The woman wanted to get married again. Her mother-in-law argued that her husband (the father of the niftar) had had a son from his first, previous marriage, and therefore, as long as the widow did not receive chalitzah from him, she could not remarry. When the case was brought before the Beis Din of Rav Shlomo Kluger, he made investigations and discovered that there was no substance to the mother-in-law’s claim and he permitted the widow to remarry. Naturally, the incident made a great storm, and Rav Shlomo had several opponents to his position. But Rav Shlomo was undeterred, and he wrote a comprehensive discourse detailing his position, for which he obtained the support of Rav Akiva Eiger and many other leading Rabbis. The widow, who had been married to her first husband for twelve years and had not merited to have a child, married an elderly man who never had children, and nevertheless, the new couple gave birth to a daughter before the conclusion of the first year of their marriage.
