Tragically, with the death toll in Israel at over 1,000 victims, painful shailos have arisen about kevurah, especially since many of the bodies were discovered and removed many hours and even days after they were murdered due to the risky security situation in Gaza border communities.

An emergency meeting was held on Tuesday evening at the office of Chief Rabbi HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Yosef with the participation of Religious Affairs Minister Michoel Malchieli, the head of his office, and a representative of the Rabbanut.

At the end of the discussion, HaRav Yosef published a letter with his piskei halacha.

The first question dealt with the request of families to be meikel in the process of identification in order to bring their relatives to kevurah as quickly as possible.

HaRav Yosef responded: “The matter is clear that despite the immense pain, bodies should under no circumstances be released for kevurah without complete and definite identification. Adarabah, k’vodo shel hameis requires definite identification both from a halachic viewpoint – due to the fear of aginus – and from a pathological viewpoint, and one should not rush and bring to kevurah without this identification.”

The second shaila was regarding the possibility of carrying out a temporary kevurah of the murdered victims from the Gaza border communities in light of the risk of holding levayos with many participants in the area.

HaRav Yosef responded: “The matter is clear that as much as possible, the solution of temporary kevurah should not be used, even if it means that the levayos will be held with just a minyan of people or if some of the family members are in captivity and cannot participate – because there are many obstacles, many problems, and serious harm to the kavod of the meis.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)