Dead Bodies on a Plane

Parshas Vayechi

By Rabbi David Zauderer 

I hate to freak you out (especially if you’re a Kohen), but there is a good chance that on your next flight to Israel, not all the passengers on the plane will be among the living.

Yes, you read that correctly!

Dead bodies are routinely flown in the baggage compartments on passenger flights for burial in distant places – thus, not all passengers will be among the living. And since it is considered very worthwhile and meritorious for a Jew to be buried in the Land of Israel – as we shall see shortly - this is an especially frequent occurrence on El Al flights.

Indeed, over 65 percent (!) of all El Al flights have dead bodies on board. And there are dead bodies being flown to Israel on other airlines as well.

[This is problematic for the many Kohanim that are likely to be on such flights, as a Kohen is forbidden to be in the presence of a dead body. This is because the tumah (ritual impurity) emanating from a dead body in the baggage compartment rises into the passenger cabin. Most authorities forbid a Kohen to fly on such flights. Other authorities are lenient and permit a Kohen to fly on a plane that has a dead body in the baggage compartment, especially in extenuating circumstances. It is proper for a Kohen to inquire whether there will be any dead bodies on his flight and to then make the appropriate decisions accordingly.]

At the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Parshas Vayechi, we read about how our forefather Jacob made his son Joseph swear that upon his demise he would take him out of Egypt and bury him in the Land of Israel, in the Me’oras HaMachpeilah (the “Double Cave”) in Hebron (see Genesis 47:29-31).

There are many “spiritual advantages” to being buried in the Land of Israel. [In fact, when burying outside of Israel, the custom is to sprinkle some dirt from Israel into the grave.]

Here is one of the main advantages, mentioned briefly by Rashi in his commentary to Genesis 47:29, and elaborated upon by the Me’am Lo’ez in Parshas Vayechi (translated into English by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan in The Torah Anthology, Maznaim Publishing):

At the time of Techiyas HaMeisim (the “Resurrection”), the soul cannot return to the body unless it is in the Land of Israel. G-d will thus first ‘reconstruct’ the bodies where they were buried outside Israel. After the bodies are reconstructed, G-d will provide “underground passages” through which they can be transported to the Holy Land. Until they reach the Land of Israel, they will remain bodies without souls. Only there will G-d grant them souls so that they can come to life. However, one who merited to be buried in the Holy Land avoids the agony of having to travel through the underground passages, which involves great anguish.”

It is because of these advantages (and some other reasons as well – see commentary of Rashi ibid.) that Jacob requested of his son Joseph to be buried in the Land of Israel, and why many other Jews over the centuries and millennia have followed suit.

Interestingly, the Jewish custom is not to move a dead person’s remains once he has been buried. There are a few exceptions, however, one of them being the transfer of the remains to Israel.

The truth is that as meritorious as it is to be buried in the Holy Land, it is even more meritorious to live in the Holy Land.

As Maimonides writes in his Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings and Wars (5:11-12):

The Sages commented: 'Whoever dwells in Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) will have his sins forgiven, as Isaiah 33:24 states: 'The inhabitant shall not say 'I am sick.' The people who dwell there shall be forgiven their sins.' Even one who walks four cubits there will merit the World to Come and one who is buried there receives atonement as if the place in which he is buried is an altar of atonement, as Deuteronomy 32:43 states: 'His land will atone for His people.' …There is no comparison between the merit of a person who lives in Eretz Yisrael and ultimately is buried there, and one whose body is brought there after his death. Nevertheless, great Sages would bring their dead there. Take an example from our Patriarch, Jacob, and Joseph, the Righteous.” At all times, a person should dwell in Eretz Yisrael even in a city whose population is primarily gentile, rather than dwell in the Diaspora, even in a city whose population is primarily Jewish.

I always like to say that this whole “dead bodies on a plane” phenomenon, where many Jewish people who never lived in the Land of Israel are now being flown to Israel just to be buried there, gives “new meaning” to one of the brief pleas for G-d’s compassion (HaRachaman) that were ordained by the Sages for us to recite at the end of the Bircas HaMazon (“Grace After Meals”):

“The compassionate One! May He break the yoke of oppression from our necks and bring us upright to our Land.”

We can understand the second part of this plea as follows: “Please, G-d, bring us to the Land of Israel while we are still alive and sitting “upright” in a seat on the plane …and before we have already died and are “lying down” in a coffin in the baggage compartment!”

http://www.torchweb.org/torah_detail.php?id=598

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