May I add, that doing taharos has helped me have a strong, concrete sense of Olam Haboh. One can really sense, as you portrayed, that we have prepared this lady for her continuting journey. She is like a pretty package, prepared for something coming next. And it gives one such a strong feeling of what really matters. I once heard
Rabbi Michel Twerski say that there’s another interpretation of chessed shel emes (a true altuistic kindness). He said that the metahair (the ritual preparation worker) is the recipient of the chessed, is the recipient of this greater awareness of the truth of what life is all about.

Also, dealing with death often leaves people feeling helpless and hopeless. But being involved with this preparation helps me feel like there is something I can do about death, something to help, something that makes a difference.
It’s almost therapeutic.

Thanks again for sharing this inspiring experience with others. May we share in many special mitzvos together.
Tizku L’mitzvos indeed!

RB

P.S. I think they use concrete containers/liners (not vaults) in Miami because the water level is so close to the surface. This way, with earth inside the container, it’s like burial in the ground and at the same time protects the casket (and body) from water damage. Admittedly, not a first best situation.

I’ve always admired the Chevra Kadisha volunteers.

To mb — rats are omnivores.

To Steg — doing shemira is a not so much a matter of being “that close to death” as you put it, but that close to life, i.e., to eternal life. The body is dead but the neshama is still there, the body decomposes and decays but the neshama never does. Hence the need for shemira (guarding the body until burial) and tahara — the neshama would feel intensely lonely and abandoned if we did not do these things for the person after death. The neshama does not immediately leave the vicinity of the body — according to Jewish tradition — but remains nearby for the first three days or until burial.

The tumah that comes with the “minor death” of menstruation affects a woman’s ability to be with her husband. A woman who touches a corpse can’t go to the Temple/Bais Hamikdash but she CAN be with her husband. A kohen is not allowed to touch a corpse and therefore not allowed to do taharos but a kohen’s wife is — I asked, because my husband is a kohen. It doesn’t affect relations between a husband and a wife, as I said.

The purification done for a deceased person in a tahara affects that person’s future at the time of techiyas hameisim — the resurrection of the dead — when Moshiach comes. Which makes it really a kabbalistic/mystical thing, somewhat obscure to us.

I agree, but don’t all states require that. I have been to funerals in Los Angeles, and Nevada, and both had vaults.

Could you explain how the Mikveh purifies the body? I always thought that a meis was the biggest source of teuma, so how could it ever be tahor?

BTW it seems that a body does not always decompose — one hears stories of a tzaddik’s grave being dug up for some reason or another, sometimes decades (centuries?) after burial, and finding that the body is intact. I don’t know whether or not these stories are to be taken with a grain of salt. I once read an article in Discover magazine that gave a technical, scientific reason why some bodies might not decompose — but I don’t remember what it was. In any case, we let nature take its course, hence linen shrouds and wooden caskets — and the holes that allow contact with the earth. (In Israel they don’t use caskets but bury people without them). We do not try to interfere, either to speed up or to retard the normal course.

Ralphie — you spoke of rats — the holes we drill are much too small to allow rodents to enter the casket, but I have heard that one of the reasons to have a shomer with the body up until burial takes place is to guard against rodents. I don’t believe rodents can get into a casket by gnawing through the wood. Concret vaults are not natural — they don’t “feel” Jewish to me — but that’s just my subjective feeling.

If the faster the body decomposes the better, why not bury the body with molasses or some other sugar? That will encourage the microbes that return the body to the earth.

You skillfully imparted to your piece the aura of dignity you apparently bring to the difficult task you describe.

It is surely a great merit to the departed to be treated with the kindness and sensitivity that you and your colleagues show, as you descibed here. May all of you be blessed for these activities. Indeed, tizku l’mitzvot.

I am honored that you have shared so much with us and pleased that you are able to be included in such precious moments for loved ones. Thank you for sharing. BVS

In answer to Ralphie:
We roll the table over to the mikva and then slip a board under the body, on the table — the kind of board that fire rescue or Hatzala uses to carry a person who can’t walk. Then we have an electric hoist with straps that go under the board, and that machine lifts the board with the body on it up off the table — over the mikva — then the machine lowers the board into the water — and since bodies tend to float, we manually push the body under. We then use the hoist to lift the board up out of the water again, and cover the body with a clean sheet — this is all done expeditiously, she is not left uncovered out of the water for more than a few seconds.

When it is time to put the person in the casket, the casket is on a frame with wheels so we roll it next to the table on which the body is lying (after the lady has been dressed). We don’t use a hoist for this but manually move the lady from the table into the casket. There are four of us, three on the left side of the table (one at her head, one at her feet, one in the middle) and one next to the casket (which is always on her right). That last person leans over the casket to reach the body. It’s hard to describe but we usually manage it pretty smoothly, everyone lifting and moving the body at once. We try not to drop her into the casket but to lower her in gently.

Once she is in we make sure the shrouds are neat, that her arms are straight by her sides and so on. We put the sovev (the winding sheet) in the casket before we put the body in, and once the body is in, we wrap it in that sovev, left side, feet, right side, head last, sort of like wrapping a package, but everything is really very gentle and careful. Maybe I should say it’s like wrapping a baby in a swaddling blanket. The last thing we do is put the cover on the casket and ask for forgiveness. I should have mentioned in my post that there are certain prayers that are said at every stage of the cleaning, immersion, and dressing. The whole process beginning to end takes about an hour and a half or two hours. (Men’s taharos take less time on average, about an hour, maybe because the men are stronger and can move the body from side to side for washing, dressing etc more easily.)

There are a lot of variables that I didn’t go into. For example, if the person has blood flowing, we don’t put her in the mikva because we don’t want to lose any blood. There’s another way to do the tahara, by pouring buckets of clean water over her instead of using the mikva, while keeping the problematic area covered so the blood doesn’t get washed away.

Maybe I’ve given you more information than you wanted to know, but anyone who is considering joining the chevra kadisha should come and watch a tahara and see that it might be something you really can do.