There was a big kerfuffle a few years back about kohanim flying on airplanes and passing over cemetaries and one of the wackier proposed solutions involved having the Kohein wrap himself up in a bodybag. While this didn’t go over well at the time, it was probably due to lousy marketing. Had they called it an “airline sleeping bag not only would it have become trendy, but they could have even charged $99 for it.
Ok so we’d need to make a more “modest” sleeved version, but it’s basically there.
(כִּי לֹא מַחְשְׁבוֹתַי מַחְשְׁבוֹתֵיכֶם וְלֹא דַרְכֵיכֶם דְּרָכָי (ישעיהו נה:ח
Travel Bag
April 7, 2006 News & Events, Religion
Did anybody ever get around to explaining how tumah can pass through the airplane but not through the Kohen-Bag(tm)?
The theory was that by being in a body bag, you were in a different reshut than the tum’ah
… but being in an airplane puts you in a different reshus than the air over the beis kever. Still don’t follow the difference the bag makes.
Well, at least they will be warm, considering how cold it can get on an airplane.
I absolutely abide by the rulings of our Rabbainm and Dayanim, but that whole thing cracked me up!
It was just the imagery of seeing men zip themselves up- I dunno, I thought it was a hoot!
Meredith – check out the shiur Josh links to. It addresses your question. (Can’t claim to have read it all, myself, but it is in there.)
Did not realize there’s a shiur in there.
Thank you, and hag kasher v’sameah!
Rav Herschel Shachter addresses this question in Beikvei Hatzon. He explains that there are really two issues involved with the tumah of a kohen. One – that the kohen should not become tamei, two- that the kohen should not go near a dead body.
Regarding one – everyone pretty much agrees that we’re all tamei already, since metal that is under the same roof as a dead body has the same status as a dead body (challal cherev obemet). So anyone who has ever carried a keychain to a funeral has forever after been carrying keys which give off the same level of tumah as a dead body, including making other metals tamei (ad infinitum presumably). So in the case of the plane flying over the cemetery, there’s no real problem regarding the tumah since you can’t add to the tumah status of the kohen (you either are tamei or you’re not).
But in regards to two – the kohen being near a dead body, the plane was nowhere near the dead body at all, therefore there is no problem for kohanim to fly on planes even if they fly over a jewish cemetery.
Rav Schechter brings down some Rabbi who had claimed that a Kohen could go to a funeral or a cemetery if the kohen was constantly holding on to a piece of metal (like a keychain) known to already be tamei since the kohen would not be adding any tumah to what he was already exposed to. Needless to say this opinion is roundly rejected.
Every Kohen that has flown from the USA to Israel has flown over a Jewish cemetery (aka “Europe”).