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IN-DEPTH FEATURES
A New Initiative
About a month ago we reported the establishment of Taharas
Cohanim: the organization of Cohanim in Eretz Yisroel and the
Diaspora, whose aim is to work towards achieving solutions to
problems involving tumas meis that are commonly
encountered by cohanim. It is hoped that by
approaching the relevant authorities and institutions as a
group with a membership of thousands, it will be possible to
obtain more effective results than hitherto, when individuals
have had to try to solve these problems acting on their
own.
The organization has also set up a Beis Horo'oh where
answers are provided to questions involving the dinim
of tumoh.
For this article, Rav Dovid Hacohen Munk, who responds to
queries, discussed some of the questions and stories that he
has heard, some of the common problems and possible solutions
and some of the situations that make an organization like
Taharas Cohanim a necessity.
The Need for Heightened Awareness
A cohen told the following story: "A very good friend
of mine stopped a cab right next to me but did not ask me to
join him. I continued walking. He met me a few days later and
said, `Do you know why I didn't offer you a ride? I was just
then on my way to the funeral parlor on Rechov Shamgar to
bring them a bag that needed burial, and you are a
cohen! But just listen to the end of the story: I
asked the driver, "Are you a cohein?" and he answered
in the affirmative, so I didn't travel with him either!' "
Rav Munk: When the Beis Hamikdosh was standing,
being a cohen affected many aspects of life. Since the
churban, the practical laws of being a cohen
are far fewer. The main area remaining that is of concern on
a day-to-day basis (besides bircas cohanim) is the
prohibition against becoming defiled by the impurity of a
dead body. According to a vast majority of Rishonim, this is
prohibited by Torah law even nowadays and the halochoh
follows this view.
People used to live in individual dwellings, not in apartment
blocks. There was far less likelihood of encountering
tumas meis than there is today. The large buildings in
which people live nowadays give rise to problems that never
used to exist. There never used to be hospitals with a
thousand beds -- actually, there were no hospitals.
Today, one death can make an entire complex impure.
The field of tumah is broad and difficult. It is one
of the harder topics in Shas to study, about which the
gemora says, "Oholos [the dinim of the
spread of tumah under a roofed area] has few verses
[in Chumash] but many halochos" (Chagigah 11).
A certain degree of ignorance prevails among a proportion of
cohanim, even with regard to elementary
halochos.
R.B. For example?
Rav Cohen: I was asked, "May cohanos become
tomei?" when in fact there is no prohibition
whatsoever for women to become tomei (without touching
on the question of a woman carrying an unborn child). I have
also heard of the question whether electric cables constitute
an ohel by virtue of the law of lovud, when,
"It is an established halochoh that we do not apply
lovud to [the laws of] tumah." Even if snow
piles up over the cables closing the spaces between them,
they do not constitute an ohel.
The grandson of a cohen who had passed away asked
whether he was allowed to become tomei for his
grandfather in view of the rule that, "Grandchildren are like
children," when it is obvious that this is forbidden.
Leaving an Ohel Immediately
R.B. What is the remedy for ignorance?
Rav Cohen: To organize a national network of
shiurim, just as is done for hilchos Shabbos,
shemiras haloshon and the dinim in the second part
of Yoreh Dei'ah.
This week, a cohen told me that he visited the cardiac
rehabilitation clinic in one of the hospitals here for
treatment. As well as undergoing treatment, he also
davened minchah in the hospital and deposited an
envelope into a branch of one of the banks there. I told him
that, without any doubt, minchah and bank deposits are
absolutely forbidden for him within the hospital precincts.
It is forbidden to be in the hospital altogether, and having
to go there for medical treatment does not permit spending
any further time there that is not directly connected to the
treatment. One must leave the hospital area immediately.
A story like this demonstrates how vital it is for cohanim
to be aware of what they must and must not do. Sometimes
cohanim have the feeling that, "It's simply impossible
to avoid tumah completely," especially when medical
facilities and hospitals must be used. This interferes in a
very basic way with their avoidance of tumah. If a
cohen has to enter a hospital, he may well feel that
under the circumstances, tumah is permitted and no
precautions are necessary, whereas the truth is that the
prohibition is only set aside insofar as the necessary
treatment is concerned and time there must be kept to the
absolute minimum.
Interestingly, the cohen referred to earlier once
underwent a catheterization and, in the adjacent room someone
passed away. Obviously, his own condition mandated that he
remain where he was, but he said that he made the effort to
close the door. According to many opinions, this single
measure saved him from tumah deOraisa [i.e. prohibited
by Torah law]. Every such moment is of inestimable value.
One of the guests staying in a hotel by the Dead Sea passed
away during Shabbos. The owner of the hotel left the deceased
in a side room and informed nobody. After Shabbos, the
cohanim who were staying there found out what had
happened and they were angry. The owner defended himself by
saying that he couldn't allow them to remain outside the
building in the blistering 42-degree heat.
On the whole, this story is not typical -- people generally
do find out when there is tumah in the same building.
One cold, wintry Friday night in Teves, an elderly lady
passed away in a building in Yerushalayim that housed seventy
families, twelve of whom were families of cohanim.
What were they supposed to do? Did they have to take their
young children outside in the freezing Yerushalayim cold?
In another case, a cohen heard on Shabbos morning that
there was tumah in his building and he escaped onto an
open balcony. It was summertime and he stayed there from
eight in the morning until after Shabbos when the body was
removed at nine o'clock that night!
R.B. Does halochoh require a cohen to do
this?
Rav Munk: It appears that he acted correctly but this
might not be true in every case. If there is a drainpipe
overhead, going outside could involve a few moments of an
even more severe transgression. This is why it's mandatory
for cohanim to know the basic halachos, so that
they know how to conduct themselves.
R.B. And what in fact is the right course to
follow?
Rav Munk: A cohen should be informed of the
presence of tumah in the building while he is on the
other side of a closed door, which he should not open! If his
front door is closed, he should stay inside and close all the
windows.
R.B. The windows?
Rav Munk: There are often drainpipes, window boxes,
bars or ledges protruding above the window that can allow
tumah to enter the house. That's why windows should be
kept closed. If a cohen does open his front door, he
should leave the building immediately.
The Problem with Hospitals
The area of a hospital is problematic for cohanim for
several reasons, such as the presence of patients that have
died, aborted fetuses and severed limbs R'l. The
hospital usually wants to examine a severed limb and the
tests can take many hours.
Some hospitals also house laboratories belonging to medical
schools, where preserved limbs and organs, some of which
cause tumah, are kept. Eye clinics may store corneas.
It is also forbidden for a cohen to enter a house
where there is someone dying (Yore Dei'ah 370). In
short, a hospital precinct poses serious problems for
cohanim, without entering into a discussion of danger
to life or possible danger that permits entry.
A Jew from France, one of whose legs was shorter than the
other, was to be hospitalized for surgery. In every other
respect he was perfectly healthy. He asked whether he was
allowed to stay in hospital, where tumah is usually
present, when his condition is not life endangering.
May a cohen visit a doctor whose clinic is inside the
hospital complex, for treatment for a condition that is not
dangerous? One cohen suffered for a time from an
ingrown toenail. His doctor would only treat it in an
operating theater but the patient's father was opposed to
this. The result was that he suffered for months until the
doctor finally agreed to bring the necessary equipment to a
clinic outside the hospital.
When a cohen's children need medical care, it is
preferable that their mother accompany them, as far as this
is possible. One cohen asked for guidance in the
following situation: his wife had recently given birth and
his older son had sustained a compound fracture that
necessitated surgery. He wanted to know whether he was
allowed to accompany his son.
Rav Munk: In this case, there is apparently no choice
but one must be aware that limbs are usually present in the
area of the operating theaters and the tumah there is
particularly serious. This week we had a call about a three-
year-old who was injured and lost his front teeth. The
question was, should he be taken to a hospital? I advised
them to go first to an external emergency clinic, to make
quite sure that there was no possibility of danger to life.
In the event that there was not, he could be taken to a
dental clinic.
It's important to realize that taking a baby into a place
where there's tumah is also forbidden. A cohen
once asked whether he was obliged to remove his newborn son
from the hospital. I told him, "Chas vesholom!"
But at the same time, the mother may not stay in the hospital
for an extra day's rest if she can have it in a convalescent
home -- even if the latter will cost several hundred shekel.
Similarly, if a baby needs his bilirubin level checked before
his bris, the test should be done in a clinic, not in
hospital, despite the extra cost. Although this adds to
expenses, glatt kosher meat is also more expensive than
regular kosher meat and the issue here is even more serious,
involving a high probability of transgressing a Torah
prohibition.
*
With regard to receiving medical care, the organization has
hopeful news that could solve problems in the future. The
heads of Taharas Cohanim have proposed a special type
of medical insurance for cohanim, to several insurance
agents. (Alternatively, it might be possible to implement the
scheme through the usual Kupat Cholim channels.) The
arrangement would enable cohanim to be treated in
private hospitals, where the types of tumah that are
prevalent in the large hospitals are not found.
If thousands of cohanim are united in one
organization, their needs in this respect will be met, if
only because of the economic interest of the various clinics
and providers of health care. One need not expect the clinics
to work altruistically. They need to be shown that there is
something in it for them. A large grouping of cohanim
is exactly the kind of economic incentive to interest
them.
On the Streets of Yerushalayim
The Sanhedria cemetery is located at the corner of
Yerushalayim's busy Bar Ilan intersection, where Bar Ilan and
Shmuel Hanovi streets meet as the latter leads onto the main
thoroughfare that carries traffic to the sprawling Ramot and
Ramat Shlomo neighborhoods. Many of the trees that stand
inside the wall sheltering the graves have branches that
extend outwards, over the adjacent sidewalk. A cohen
might walk innocently along the street without realizing that
he is entering an ohel hameis.
There was a similar case decades ago in Yerushalayim's
Hanevi'im Street. The Bikur Cholim Hospital's morgue used to
be situated where the Yad Sarah railway carriage stands
today. Trees extended from over the morgue to the sidewalk.
When someone asked HaRav Yitzchok Yaakov Weiss zt'l,
author of ShuT Minchas Yitzchok, about this, the rov
visited the site, measured the tree and ruled that it was
apparently forbidden by Torah law for cohanim to walk
along that part of the street. HaRav Weiss himself approached
the relevant authorities and the tree was cut down the
following day.
At the end of Rechov Malchei Yisroel, in the site where a
major Kupat Cholim clinic was recently built, burial caves
were found. When that building was recently erected on this
site, during the construction, a crane with a forty-two meter
long arm was used.
It was suddenly noticed that the crane was acting as an
ohel when its arm was situated above both the caves
and the adjacent Yakirei Yerushalayim yeshiva. The Rosh
Yeshiva and a number of the talmidim are
cohanim. The metal bars from which the crane was
assembled were twelve centimeters wide, more than the
tefach's width that will convey tumah
everywhere beneath itself. The solution to the problem took
the shape of several plasterboard partitions that prevented
tumah under the crane's arm from entering the
yeshiva.
At Kivrei Hatzaddikim
According to halochoh, the burial places of the righteous do
convey tumah. However we do not rely on this. At many
of these sites, arrangements have been made for shelter for
cohanim, consisting of a piece of roofing that is
separate from the main ohel which stands over the
actual grave. Often though, the gap between the two roofs is
very small and if someone stands under the space, he will
`join' the small roof to the main ohel, bringing
tumah to all the cohanim who are standing
outside. This is a very serious problem. Even a chair or a
bench between the small roof and the ohel can connect
the two of them.
At the grave of a certain Rebbe, the roof of the
ohel itself protrudes quite a bit from the building,
constituting a major hazard for cohanim standing
outside the ohel who can easily step underneath it
without realizing. Steps are currently being taken to provide
adequate warning signs, telling cohanim to keep their
distance from the edge of the roof.
Effecting Change
Another of the organization's objectives is to act, as far as
is possible, to smooth difficulties that are encountered in
public thoroughfares. One example involves the removal of
deceased patients from their beds.
Several months ago, a cohen accompanied his wife to
the delivery ward in a hospital in Yerushalayim. They arrived
at midnight and found a sign on the door announcing that
"Entrance to Cohanim is Forbidden." A female relative of
theirs happened to be there and she accompanied the wife
inside the hospital. The cohen, who waited outside in
the rain, called the hospital's security officer and asked
when the body would be removed. "In an hour-and-a-half, or
two hours," was the reply.
The cohen explained that it was imperative that he
enter the hospital, to which the security officer responded
that the deceased's family had not yet arrived. The
cohen did not give up and called the hospital rabbi.
The body was moved within half-an- hour!
On occasion, the removal of a body can take several hours.
The input of an official organization will definitely
contribute to the speeding up of the process in such cases.
If the civil law requires a body to be left for half-an-hour
before removal, why should it take hours? Why is Bnei Brak's
Maayanei Yeshu'oh Hospital the only place where the removal
is not delayed?
Much has already been done by numerous bodies and individuals
to alleviate the problems. Improvements have been made all
over the country, some of them by hospital rabbonim. Yet it
can be said that all the approaches that have been made to
public bodies hitherto have been by private individuals and
the response they met with was accordingly weak. Such
applications have to be made in the name of an organized
group.
The message must be conveyed that there is an entire sector
that wishes to observe halochoh but encounters difficulties.
In order to streamline the process of removal of bodies, it
is not funds that are missing. The solution is simply
organizational. If thousands of cohanim belonging to
an official organization request changes, they will surely
meet with a fitting response.
The existence of such a group will benefit all those who are
involved in areas that affect cohanim. Once there is
awareness that cohanim have the backing of an
organization, even when they have to deal with matters as
individuals, they will find that they are being paid more
attention.
Not for Nothing!
Rav Munk: Staying clear of tumah affects many
aspects of life. Museums may house skulls and bones that are
sources of tumah. Cohanim have to be more careful
about travelling abroad because of the tumah that
Chazal decreed on the gentile lands. At a levaya
during the winter, a `roof' of umbrellas may be formed around
the bier, constituting an ohel hameis that can extend
quite a distance away.
There are other topics that we have not mentioned at all,
such as the tumah of a deceased gentile, a cohen
identifying a dead body, whether a cohen may
become tomei for one of his seven closest relatives
when he'll become tomei because of another meis
at the same time, the tumah of gentile dwellings,
travelling inside a tunnel at the same time as a Chevra
Kadisha van, and numerous others.
As Rav Munk listed all the restrictions that apply to members
of the cehunah, I voiced my thoughts, "It's not simple
being a cohen during the golus . . ."
Rav Munk was silent for a moment and then opened a Rambam and
turned to the first perek of Hilchos Bikkurim
and excitedly pointed to the list of the twenty-four
priestly gifts that the cohanim receive. "May the
Mikdosh be rebuilt speedily!" he both exclaimed and
wished. "We won't receive these twenty-four gifts for free.
They come with a price. If my daughters do not marry
cohanim and they come to visit with their families for
Shabbos, they will have to bring their own food from home; I
will be eating soup made with carrots of terumoh and
meat from shelomim!
"It's also not for nothing that we stand along the mizrach
and bless Klal Yisroel. Do we merit this for
nothing? We have to do something for it -- we have to give
something! By avoiding tumah we express our faith in
the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdosh and this itself
will be the means whereby we soon merit the fulfillment of
the prayer to `return the cohanim to their service,'
omein!"
At the founding meeting of Taharas Cohanim: the organization
of Cohanim in Eretz Yisroel and the Diaspora, all the members
of the organization's Rabbinical Advisory Board, which heads
the group, were present. The board's members are: HaRav Yosef
Hacohen Roth, av beis din on the beis
din of HaRav Nissim Karelitz and head of Beis Dovid
Institutions, HaRav Nosson Hacohen Kopshitz, rov of
the Nachaloh Umenuchoh neighborhood in Beit Shemesh, HaRav
Shmuel Boruch Hacohen Deutsch, one of the roshei
yeshiva of Yeshivas Kol Torah and HaRav Shlomo Hacohen
Kahn, one of the rabbonim from the beis din of HaRav
Shmuel Wosner.
The blessings of gedolei Yisroel were read out at the
meeting. Letters from HaRav Yosef Sholom Eliashiv, HaRav
Chaim Pinchos Scheinberg, HaRav Shmuel Halevi Wosner
and HaRav Nissim Karelitz were read.
The organization's principal objectives are:
* To deepen awareness of taharoh among the community
of cohanim,
* To remove common obstacles and limitations with which
cohanim must contend and
* To issue a publication that will supply members with up-to-
date information.
A beis horo'oh named Taharas Cohanim was opened
several months ago and it has already become a major source
of guidance for cohanim seeking directions about how
to handle a variety of situations involving issues of
tumoh and taharoh. Difficult shailos are
referred to the leading poskim for their ruling. The
number to call for the beis horo'oh is 02- 586-
2153.
Registration of members has begun. With the backing of a
strong membership, the organization's representatives will be
able to work together with the relevant authorities and
groups to achieve recognition of the various aspects of the
special needs of cohanim. Registration for Taharas
Cohanim and the organization's other activities are being
conducted in the offices of Halochoh Umaaseh in Yerushalayim.
The telephone number for registration is 02-5710832.
Rav Munk: The most common area where mistakes are made
is in the laws governing the tumah of ohel
hameis. There is a certain amount of confusion regarding
the halachic principles of ohel and `tumah that
will eventually come out' (sof tumoh lotzeis). I will
give a brief definition:
`Ohel' refers to every place that is under a roof that
is sheltering a dead body. `Tumah that will eventually
come out' refers, for example, to the situation where a dead
body is in a room and the door is closed, preventing
tumah from spreading. Since the body will eventually
leave via this entrance however, the situation is regarded as
though the door was open and the tumah spreads.
We tried to clarify what percentage of the community at large
are cohanim. We asked the gabboim of several
botei knesses how many people daven there and
how many cohanim say bircas cohanim.
The smallest percentage we found was in Beis Haknesses
Chofetz Chaim in Kiryat Sefer, where there are only six
cohanim out of a congregation of one hundred and
twenty. According to information provided by other places
however, it seems that about ten percent of the various
congregations are cohanim.
There are roughly eight hundred mispalelim at
minchah in Yeshivas Ponevezh on a fast day and around
seventy of them say bircas cohanim. At Beis Haknesses
Beis Shmuel in Unsdorf, Yerushalayim, with a hundred
mispalelim, there are ten cohanim. At the
Gra shul in Bayit Vegan, there are a hundred and fifty
mispalelim and fifteen cohanim.
At the Lederman shul in Bnei Brak, around a hundred
and twenty people daven shacharis kevosikin on Shabbos
morning and there are twelve cohanim. Two hundred and
fifty people daven in Yeshivas Ateres Yisroel in
Yerushalayim and approximately twenty say bircas
cohanim.
If, as it seems, cohanim constitute approximately ten
percent of the community, this would mean that there are tens
of thousands of cohanim in Eretz Yisroel alone.
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