Parshas Beshalach: Embalming, Cremation, and Autopsies in Halacha Part 1

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com okay uh good morning everyone we're going to be learning today's moam the brother of my good friend for all the children and grandchildren okay we have a very interesting topic today um and it's not for those who have a squeamish stomach you have your stomach has to be stable for this one and the topic is inbombing autopsies and cremation in h and it's a major topic and hopefully we'll do it in two sh we'll spend two sh on this okay and we begin I think most people know that a EMB bombing is prohibited you can't mummify a mess inbombing what's in bombing where you take out remove the vital organs and you supplant it with uh chemicals preservatives form Malahide uh glycerin and other and other chemicals CU you need all the parts and uh the main reason why this is prohibited is it's Niel ham it's n ham only to human being yeah it's ni Ham n means only to only to correct only to to it's means it's disrespectful to the body the same way we know when a person's alive he is not the bow over his body the body does not belong to him the body does not belong to him either and you cannot do with it as you like and that's why there's a Mitzvah of anding is prohibited what ah so what about Yu we know yobu wasn't bed right they spent a long time preserving the body of Yu as well as y y was bombed and we'll see what this has to do with this week's par so we begin with and according to if we learn what he says we could all go home we don't need any she okay let's take a look at says says what is they would smear the body with different perfumes and spices right in other words you're not removing anything you're not taking out any vital organs you're not draining the blood you're just smearing you know moisturizers and creams and and perfumes preservatives like it's written by Assa says in I believe they laid him on the bed that was full of spices and many various types of spices blended with the with the uh skill in English it says the apothecary's art whatever that means what he was one of the one of this is after you watch them what yeah okay okay fine so that's what says what is it has nothing to do with taking out the vital organs has nothing to do with draining the blood merely what they did was they smeared the body with perfumes to preserve the body and according to we have no question we see by they did Kanata because they didn't really do what we call EMB bombing they didn't take out the heart the liver the intestines so how today they lend this to other people that got an accident they need the say organ ding yes is this against simply in most cases yes yeah he's talking about organ doning it's a separate topic really because uh organ doning first of all once the once the body is um completely dead so the organs are useless they also die very quickly once the person is completely dead you can't the organs don't have any value after brain death if somebody is brain dead but the heart is still working the organs have value the thing is if you take out the organ you're killing the person so basically after doesn't do anything and before death after brain death you're you're killing the P you take out the person's heart you're right so said M Clinic m is like when the the heart is still working and the mo is not working this is okay so it depends what you consider death and that's beyond the scope of the share today okay we're not going to be discussing organ doning one day will uh we'll get up to that okay okay so so far the EMB bombing that we saw by yov ainu was merely smearing the body with oils now that's not the traditional EMB bombing that they used to do in Egypt if you go to uh Brooklyn Museum Metropolitan Museum right that Museum of national history and you see you want to you want to see Rams we're not talking they didn't smear his body with they remove moved his organs and we'll see about that but besides that you should know in most mortuaries in United States of America they're doing full-fed and bombing right for viewing what do you think they do we'll see they just did it to the president of South North Korea they take out the vital organs was out for almost one month okay it's a process we'll see we'll see okay do that on also according to ra we could say that what what do they do to they merely smear the skin with different spices okay the same asob beses says the same explanation as that what they did to was merely smearing the skin with various preservatives says it's brought down it's quoted in the what exactly did they do to so they said go ask ask the doctors what are you asking me what they did to and you think they preserved yob you think they emomed him like they emom every other every other guy every other she if you're going to say begin or that the reason why they had to OV is because takes a long trip from Egypt to the mar and by the time they would get to the Mar in that hot desert sun the body would start to Decay don't know that's not the reason why they that's not the reason they inbombed him because they inomed yose also and they never brought to right ysep never went with yov on the road so don't say the purpose of is for the long trip because ysep didn't take the long trip he 40 years y 40 years he was in the desert yeah but he was he was in the ground but he buried in Israel later on later on so that's those the purpose probably but the Egyptians didn't know what's going to be in 40 years later so don't say the was for the long road he was buried right there so rather what did they do this was what they used to do to Kings to preserve the body they embomb them with a lot of perfume and a lot of spices with SH the finest type of oil mixed with spices and it got absorbed into the body they used to put these spices on the body and it used to be was ni on the body after day with that good oil 40 days after this process the body would remain whole for a very long time how much is long time till today yeah you're right you go there you see it why do they have to do this says the because in the land of Egypt and the land of is bodies Decay very quickly what the body decays because of the climate because of the weather the body decays quickly the body decays away and it's quickly it quickly turns R in more than any other lands in order to preserve the body they did this they put the spices on the outside they put the spices on the inside how they get it on the inside right we're saying that according to according to the they never cut up and they never removed any organs of they merely preserved it with spices how they get on the inside they put it on the navl we'll see somebody that that the body is the same as the body before it's born right we know before a body is Born the eyes are closed the naval is open when a person's alive theab when a person's alive the eyes open the naval closes the naval opens the eyes close that's what the quotes So they put it into the tab it would go inside the it was absorbed in the intestines and the body lasted a long time okay what's the point I mean once you you you enter a person yeah you cover them up you put him and that's it you don't what do you what do you have to uh why did they do this for what's the reason this was this was this was the Mina for the important people they wanted to preserve them what after they put him into the K or what no it doesn't they put him in a box yeah they left him in a box out of glass wood whatever they kept it was an honor it was an honor we'll see why they did this we'll see at the end of the year why they did this okay according to we started offing so we asked how could they do it to and the Z both say what they did was not really it was merely a way of preserving it by applying various preservatives on the outside appears there so can also mean this this is another possible meaning of this is By Request of they did this yes fors they did the real thing that was okay so I guess according to and according toire maybe y used his influence to do this alternative form of okay so according to according to the there's nothing to talk about there's no question from however the learns that what they did to was full-fledged look at theel in number three commanded his servants the doctor they practiced the general custom of King they applied the practice the traditional pla practice of iming what is iming [Music] boming means to remove the brain and the heart and the liver and the intestines and all the bitterness of the yeah right they would anoint the body from the inside the out with different kinds of perfume they filled up the body with various chemicals and spices that dried out the body you have to change it every day you got to change these spices every day and in a matter of time the body remains dry and hard in a perfect State it's able to be preserved in the most perfect way the body looks like it's sleeping peacefully it doesn't it doesn't people don't go away from it we know the smell of a mace is a very overwhelming smell this this process works one two three you're as good as new you're as good as new says this is what they did to I just point out this is is what they do in the United States of America today and most mortuaries if that's how you say it and uh there's a very famous uh that's you know where they take the body for they bring it to the the mor the right um and that's where they they take care of the body and and many people I think uh it's a very high percent they they get inomed for all practical purposes what do they do there's a famous article by somebody by the name of uh Jennifer mitford who sort of exposed the way they bury people the way they preserve the bodies in the United States of America and uh the hak to this article is you need to very stable stomach to really to read to read I'll just read you a couple of things if you want to know whether eming is NI or not so let's take a look at what they do look what she writes she says alas how surprised one would be to see how his counterpart of today is with whist off to the funeral parlor and in short order is sprayed sliced pierced pickled waxed trimmed creamed roed NE neatly dressed transformed from a common corpse into a beautiful memory picture okay I'll read to one one other thing he says every operator has a favorite injection and drainage Point okay about 3 to six gallons of dyed and perfume solution of formaly Glycerin borax phenol alcohol and water is soon coating through Mr Jones whose mouth has been sewn together with a needle directed upward between the upper lip and the gum brought out through the left nostril a woman that if there are any problems with the teeth it's not a problem the teeth are clean with bonami and coated with colorless nail polish okay so if you want to know whether ining is okay what the and CU these things DEC the purpose of the inbombing process is to preserve the body they take out all the vital organs and they pump in for malide and all these chemicals that preserve the body okay and that's what they do for the viewing right you have a a dead guys they they move the lips up in a in a upward motion so that the body has a pleasant expression okay that's after cutting slicing and dicing the body like a piece of steak for birs what birds is very very common to to to to make it to put thorine inside the bird okay that's not a that you could do the problem is when you do it to Adam okay so again he was sick for a long time so I go to hospital visit San Francis and he looked really really bad he was very strong person but he look very bad and pastor and his family asked me they beg me to to go to the funeral so I told him I said if you put him in the church I cannot go so if you put him in the funeral home maybe they and they were counting on me to go so I went there and I saw they they had him there he looked so good suit with a best his best suit best shirt nice high and cosmetically they fixed up his so nice and if there's any his hair was combed and he looked so good if there's any if there's any problem with the color the person has drawn this they know how to color the face with layers and layers of makeup and sometimes for an Added Touch they'll stick in the hand a special pipe his favorite pipe or book so you know he could take it with him so that's so if you want to know about to they have a mirror above the okay but again according to and this is not what they did to according to they classically inomed so even if we say that cutting up a mace is NI but perhaps if you're doing it to beautify the mace and to preserve the maybe that's not evil maybe that's and in fact there are who say it is permitted it's a benefit it's a benefit from this let us first examine that the end of this is talking about the death of all the Warriors got up they went the whole night says they after sh was killed they took Sha's body and the bodies of his children from the wall they brought to and they burnt the bodies of sha and his children there so what they do what they cremated sha yeah that's what it look like says they burned him like they burn Kings that's what T says and number five on the bottom the last two lines so we'll see what does mean when he says they burned him like they burn Kings the radak has two explanations for the T if you look at thean and talks about when a king would die they would take all his possessions they would take his throne they would take his property they would take all of his Royal instruments and they would burn it as if to say he's so great no one else is worthy to use these items so says the you know what t means that they burnt sha and his sons they cremated sha and his sons they burnt his furniture and his throne and his possessions but not that they burnt him that's the first Rak so what they did with his body they buried the body does not go on the is going on says number six and they burnt them like they used to burn Kings could be you know what the means like tell us they burn the king's possessions okay so that's the first what does mean they burnt they burnt his stuff his possessions or another you know what it means they burnt they burnt spices in other words they didn't burn the body you know how when you burn spices it produces very pleasant aroma so they burnt these spices to preserve the body of sh of sha so these are the two right incense these are the two explanations of the Rak for the number one either they burned his possession number two they burnt incense says an amazing thing if you look at number seven on the Fifth Line the says now according to both explanations of radak they didn't touch the vital organs of sh either they burnt his possessions or they just burnt B him says was in two pieces because they cut his head off and his shoulder like they push him okay but doesn't mean that right but the bombing process did not further cut him up according to the rakie says the I hold that when thei says they burnt them it means they burnt their bodies what what does that mean they they cremate it sha no the chem used in the EMB bombing process are like acid and they tear through the Flesh and they burn the skin and they burn the vital organs that's what it means the spices of inbombing burns the testifies later that the only thing they burned all that was left was the bones according to that they burned their Throne or they burned spices why did they just bury the bones what about the Flesh and all the body parts it must be says that I am correct that you know what it means they use the chemicals of to burn through the flesh good that's what it is because they were burnt and the bones also were burnt yeah but the say something else something else it's not so to burn bones yes it is even though that's a separate thing in America we'll talk about through when we get to Cremation you know people think you send it to the cre to to burn the bones could take a very long time to burn and sometimes they think they give the family ashes slav daa the ashes of their relative it could be the ashes of the last guy who his bones haven't finished burning in I didn't you're right I didn't finish right that why he said a different opinion too I know he said the b b the bones the Buri it according to Rak they cremated him exactly according to radak it's opinion in the rad oh I think I'm not reading that yet I'm not reading that yet yeah but but here here they do in the oven and they burn completely the body in the oven a big electricity that's what they say hot flame very hot flame flame it does burn the whole thing hey it does yeah yeah yeah I heard it's very controversial we'll talk about that the [Music] nas correct I know I know story that on the L bone for the Nasco from laa that that that bone gets nourishment from lava Mala yeah by the way I'll tell you something very interesting writes in AA you know we talk about where their bones ratting there's one bone that doesn't rat so says that we know says Al it's also it has another name says but there's a that jealousy also causes the bones to rat says that's talk not the other bones but someone who doesn't have K none of the bones rat Samer says yeah of course that's why he says you it talks about they found pits of with full of Bones said what full of Bones what they're all the NCO bone says well it's all the L it can't be all the L not impossible the whole the whole pit is well how do they get a pit full of Nasco that brought his he was complete as the day he was dying he did it he did the really complete said when they move when the move the old Cemetery when when the Russians wanted to build a a road on the highway they took the go out so he was still cover the the they could feel his beard wow they didn't open it up but they they feel his his beard was still he was complete wow g wow so says by the way now we're going to see what does they have to do with this week's Parish according to means through the process and that's why it says they bury the bones what does it say in this week's the whole body the answer is if because if they did the full fles process the full flesh process there is no B left that's why says who says that look number three the second to last line says what do they do to and if they embed him completely what's the proof that was had already disintegrated okay now says how can I say that they Ed sh but isn't it n says it's not two lines from the bottom says when it comes tooming it's not ni it's a great benefit these are good benefits the body doesn't Decay and rat and smell that's permitted you couldn't B it's like dissolving the the meat right this is in like an acidic type of years ago there were two burials one one the dead body was put in a box until theh rotted and only bones they put in another box they put it together with the all theice with all the family T talks about that in the beginning the two stages that they used to do okay RAB said does anybody else say it's m so so far even though and Z say they did not actually theel says they did says it's m and the Raj when the great when the great also says says the rash look at number eight a guy died plainly dies and at the time of he gives the following that he wants to be buried with the something happened the day of they couldn't get the body out in time they buried him temporar and now now they want to bring him to the family and it's very difficult to carry the body now because the body is the middle of decaying and it smells right while the body while the flesh is still rotting it's very putrid are you allowed to put lime on the body to speed up the process is this a disgrace LI or not you causing pain to the mace says the rash whatever is done to expedite the disintegration of the flesh you're allowed to do it there's no disgrace over here whatever process you're doing to speed up the disintegration there's no there's no pain a dead body can't feel a knife it certainly can't feel lime the ERS tear the body [Music] open he learns feels but the says there's no pain there's no disgrace so he have some pretty big guns over here that say you're allowed to do it the says that's what they did to says it's m that's what they did to the Raj says it's m how do we it's we know how to do it look at the look at the ra very carefully you can transfer a from one city to the next unless you're taking the body to you want to diser the body and move it to that you could do or you want to move somebody to be buried together with the you're allowed to move what if it's a long distance now look carefully at the if if the mace had commanded you to move from one place to the next the mace tells you to move from one place to the next or to from the house to the you listen says mid of you're allowed to put lime on the body to cause the flesh to disintegrate to bring the body to the place that He commands in other words according like the Raja said and he's quoting the Raj in the cha we just read is passing like the rashba that in order to temporarily preserve the body to Move It from one Kev to the next you could apply Sid to the outside of the body but R does not go so far as to say what the rashba said that you could cut up the body to remove vital organs or to remove blood in other words we're stopping short you want to put medicant creams preservatives on the outside if necessary it may be permitted to cut dice go inside the body we don't allow that we don't allow that what is the freezer today that they put in the freezer it's like the seed what I don't know just to preserve it what is the seed also to preserve it The Preserve is the opposite it speeds up the decay of the flesh so that you don't have to smell it you just just at put it in in a dry ice they I don't know what do they do when they take the body to Art Isel dry ice dry ice okay if you'll see usually the final word on these type of is the isin who wrote the authoritative work on a and all related in yanim and he's usually the final word on these but still a lot of this may be outdated I don't think they do some of these procedures today let's take a look how he concludes look at number says is it worthwhile does it make sense to embomb a Jewish body there's a great dispute among the great authorities about this there are two possible problems number one nowadays they drain the blood they drain the blood and sometimes they even remove the inerts that's what they do today in America so that would be and number two the procedures that they that they do delay the Decay process and one of the main purposes of Kura is that the body should Decay the gamar in sanin says that a person that the kapar the kapar occurs not just by the but by the when the flesh decays that's part of the kapara so delaying that process you're you're stopping the kapar process right so what should we do so says is like this if you have to carry the body a day or two in the heat you could you could apply you could perform some types some type of procedure in other words you want to apply certain medications and certain [Music] um perfumes and spices to slow down the Decay process that you're allowed to do temporarily but do not do not take out the blood okay the by the way the says if you need to put it into the body through the mouth or through the navl it's permitted that's how the um you can't make any incisions you can't intrude the body but through an already existing orice you could stick it in okay however but if it's a far trip you could remove the blood through a machine I don't think they do that today right I don't think uh it's a short trip even know it's a long distance yeah I don't think they still do that today but if necessary he says that would be okay what do you do with the blood once you get once you've drawn the blood if necessary he says what what you should do is you should put this blood in a container and bury it together with the even though he says according to most and it's only nevertheless this type of blood he says that we move on our own does does need okay so basically we have two opinions right we have the opinion of the the opinion of they never did this procedure to and however according to Abel they did do this to yobu so you'll ask according to Abel why don't we learn out from yobu if they were able to do this to him and ysf commanded this should be done to him why don't we learn out there's a from from from says the very something very interesting writes in Sim we see so we should learn out there's or at least it's permitted to IM and yet we know and look for us it's just the opposite for us is prohibited ah so look a little bit down what's the answer so why don't we learn out from it was before the Torah was given and you cannot learn out from what they did before the Torah was given to what they did after the Torah was given you can't learn out you want to learn out you allow to marry two sisters because married two sisters okay fine so says bombing is prohibited before the Torah was given don't hack me with what what happened before the Torah was given okay let us that said that not allow to P there's another thing you can't have Han what after no doing the life if it's better to keep all the like some think was yeah that's to all yes [Music] that's a Kasha that's a big question and there are different answers to that look in the the various answers but nevertheless at the end of the day if they did something before the Torah was given you don't learn out learn out Lear even though that's says right they're various answers you it us okay I just want to point out two two more things okay let us take a look for a moment at theer says a very P the reason why we're not going to learn from y why look what he says look at in number 13s why don't we learn out from the fact that Ed his father I wrote In one of the quoting the that we saw right the they never really Ed they never opened upov stomach they never removed his intestines the Z says that they stuck it into the naval of yov the you can stick it into the mouth of a why not this is what we mentioned before when a person passes away the mouth closes the naval opens the same way the body was in so the samur goes on to say that what good would it do to stick in these spices into the of if the digestive system is if it's full of uh excrements so what good is it going to do to preserve the body but there's all kinds of waste material in inside so says that according to ran the ran says by it says what what does that mean according to ran means there was some kind of the there was a digestive problem that caused the intestines to disintegrate on their own that's if you look in the ran that's what happened to in that case says there was no problem stick like desire says to stick in these spices because there was no waste product that waste product had disintegrated on their own let's end off with the I and in general it gives us an understanding why were the Egyptians so hooked up on inbombing right everybody knows in Egypt right there everybody's inbombed from parro to their cats right you could go to the the museums not only were the kings in bombed they in bombed the cats also what was that all that so so um memory to know that it was Egypt so one of the said well in the Z said in the land of MIT and the land of it was a very dry hot climate and things the very quick and that's why they imbed says there was a very deep reason why number 14 why in they in bombed says an amazing thing what Listen to This Not That all this was true all this is evidence we should know there was a par yeah have evidence look what he says like they they say why we have this is the left over from the Maul to know that remember that the Maul could come any time yeah look at look what the look at number 14 what does that mean other they protect their generation participates with every generation that they should not forsake that's says so let's take a look skip a line you know why in Egypt they people because in Egypt they knew so long as the body is intact the soul clings to the body and this is our tradition also that for the until until the body decays the N hovers over the Kev the soul is connected to the body so long as the body so long as the body is intact so why the because was proficient in K how did they do their K not like the malam said we learned a few weeks ago it was slide of hand they were they contacted the Dead now if they're going to contact the dead they want you know they don't want a longdistance phone call they want local charges so if you want if they want local charges they have to keep the Nish close by so therefore they EMB all the bodies this way the nishas are hovering right here in this world this way they could be these are the sh these are the that hung out that hovered over the bodies that's what all they did so that the does not separate from the body too far they're gonna have to call the operator and the operator going to say it's a collect call you know it's not going to work this is what they did they anointed the whole body with oil they took out the intestines they did the0 days and the body lasts forever you could go to Egypt today you'll find these corpses you could go to P today knock on him and he's hard like a stone right he's still right they call it mmy they wanted to connect to these Souls that's why the Torah warns us don't act like they did in egpt what don't be how are they now listen to this I never heard the story I don't know where it comes from maybe you could look it up do some research there's a well-known I don't know who that is right there was a man by the name of Johan p no he escaped from Egypt with a bunch of mummies listen to this m he escaped from Egypt on a boat with a bunch of mummies the king obviously would not let him just you know snatch out the mummies with um with permission so he snuck out on a boat dozens of these mummies and as soon as he got to the Sea these Souls started going crazy they started killing the soldiers on the boat and Johan had a throw all these mummies off the boat many there were many casualties on the boat and he was lucky he was able to escape with his life look what he says he got to the heart of the sea the boat was full of these Devils they wanted to sink the boat a lot of his soldiers were thrown overboard they were killed Vu they were drowned Vu they were attacked he had to throw all the bodies into the sea okay that's what says is a well-known story I never heard it before yeah I missed it yeah so I don't know if you have any information you can print out for a whole Regiment of uh old that they go after they bring to the M whole regiment yeah what what year is this I don't know any more information than you see over here I don't know when hey he's saying they they testify oh says this is a very interesting thing says that is why y allowed yov to be inomed because he wanted the to be with throughout the generations are we allowed to do this no says you can't learn out from what happened before mat but did y have a reason to do this he wanted the of Yu somehow to have a certain influence in this world I don't understand how but this is what he says by himself y yeah I don't know maybe ysf also look what he says so that the soul of should be bound to be able to protect his descendants for all times the soul of has influence over every Jew and because something very interesting and uh next week we'll move on to two other very important topics autopsies and cremation if you want hold on to the sheets and bring it back next week otherwise I could uh be your appach chopus for you you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by tor anytime.com