But some of that cleansing is beyond the means of the chevra kadisha. Everything you ever ate left its trace in the body. If you ate like Rabbi Yehuda, the nassi, all that you ingested was good and pure. Otherwise, your body requires a detox.
How did Rabbi Yehuda, the nassi, eat?
Rabbi Yehudah was the foremost leader of the Jewish people in the period after the Bar Kochba revolt. He redacted the final, official version of the Mishnah, the first halachic compendium. The nassi was the chief justice of the supreme court of Israel, the most prestigious and powerful position at the time. He is also often referred to in the Talmud as “our holy rebbe,” or just “Rebbe.”
The Talmud relates:
At the time of Rebbe's death, he raised his ten fingers toward heaven and said, “Master of the Universe, it is revealed and known before You that I toiled with my ten fingers in the Torah, and I have not derived any benefit from the world even with my small finger.”
Now, Rabbi Yehudah lived a grandly affluent life. People would say that his stable manager was wealthier than the Persian Emperor. He often hosted Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Emperor of Rome, who he matched in wealth. As far as austerity goes, the Talmud states that he had radish, lettuce, and cucumber on his table all year round, something quite rare in the centuries before refrigeration.
Yet, with all this wealth and condiments at his table, he never indulged in any of it for its own sake. To him, it was all a means to serve G-d. All his food was therefore holy food.
True, that’s not easy. It’s a simple thing to live off bread and water or a bowl of rice and only eat for the “sake of heaven.” You’ll avoid that purging of the body after death. But G-d created a variety of foods for a reason. It must be that we, like Rabbi Yehudah, are capable to some degree of consuming these, as well, for a higher purpose. Every detail of life, even its luxuries, can and must be used for a divine purpose.
But let’s say you didn’t. Let’s say, once or twice in life you ate something with no higher purpose in mind. It was just time to eat. Or it looked good. Or it just happened to be there. So now your holy body has ingested food molecules that were never made holy like itself. The body has to purge itself of this unholiness while it lies in the grave.
That’s called a “thrashing of the body,” because it’s similar to hanging up a rug and thrashing the dust out with a stick. As the body decays in the soil, it is not completely dead. It is cleansing itself.
(There is an alternative way to give your body this cleansing: Make sure to speak words of Torah, whether that be Tehillim, Mishnah, Talmud, or any other Torah words, for one-sixth of your day, or four hours.)
