I grew up a goy, a Seventh-Day Adventist. It was not until I came to America at age 11 that I went to funerals with open caskets. <\/p>\n
In a 2010 lecture titled “R. Avraham Shapiro<\/a>” for Torah in Motion<\/a>, professor Marc B. Shapiro<\/a> says: “Many of R. Joseph Messas’s<\/a> decisions (psakim<\/em>) are incomprehensible today because of the meta-halachic concerns that make us look like Christians.<\/p>\n “It’s clear that Jews have to be buried in a separate cemetery. R. Joseph Messas’s<\/a> says it is permitted to bury Jews in a cemetery with other religions so long as the Jewish graves are at least four cubits apart from the rest.”<\/p>\n “In Christian countries, you could never have decisions like this. Jewish graves near Christian graves with crosses? It wouldn’t work.”<\/p>\n “R. Joseph Messas’s<\/a> was asked if it was permitted to view the dead and to put flowers on the coffin? A posek<\/em> (decider of Jewish law) in Europe would never agree. It’s obvious that these are non-Jewish practices. Most of us have never seen a dead body because we do not have open caskets.”<\/p>\n “R. Joseph Messas’s<\/a> says this is permitted. It is the original Jewish approach. He’s dealing with societies in the Muslim world where no one had open caskets.”<\/p>\n “He sees no problem with flowers on caskets.”<\/p>\n “Fifteen years ago, there wasn’t one essay on R. Joseph Messas’s<\/a>. Now there are loads.”<\/p>\n “R. Joseph Messas’s<\/a> shows us that traditional Judaism can encompass a wide variety of thought.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I grew up a goy, a Seventh-Day Adventist. It was not until I came to America at age 11 that I went to funerals with open caskets. In a 2010 lecture titled “R. Avraham Shapiro” for Torah in Motion, professor … Continue reading