A Grave Problem

A kollel yungerman is cruising around the mountains, trying to find a suitable bungalow colony for his family. He takes notice of the beautiful scenery as he travels through South Fallsburg. He stops in front of a bungalow colony that is recommended to him by friends. There is ample space to park on the side of the road. The yungerman is about to walk through the entrance when he looks up towards the sky. He is dismayed by what he sees. He thinks for a moment and then says to himself: “If it is good enough for Eliyahu HaNavi, it is good enough for me.” He decides to enter.

Just as he is about to take another step, he reminds himself of a dispute in Bereishis Rabbah about whether Eliyahu HaNavi hails from the tribe of Gad or Binyamin. In fact, he recalls a midrash where Eliyahu HaNavi remarks about himself that he is a descendant of the children of Rachel (which would concur with the opinion that he hails from the tribe of Binyamin). Perplexed about whether or not he may enter the bungalow colony, he calls his rabbi. His rabbi concurs that there, indeed, may be a real issue here and suggests that the yungerman find an alternate bungalow colony. The young father, who hitherto had been very excited about this particular colony, then enters into a state of despair.

All of a sudden, a group of superheroes, clad in black, swoop in and save the day.

What is the meaning of the above anecdote that is based on a true story that happened this past summer?

As the yungerman was driving through South Fallsburg, he noticed a non-Jewish cemetery on the side of the road. There was a tree whose branches extended over a grave. That very tree extended on its other side over thick Verizon cables. The yungerman was a kohen. If the non-Jewish grave transmits tumah via ohel (something above it), the tumah from the grave heads up towards the tree. The tree then spreads the tumah to anything under it, so the tumah would then spread to the cable underneath the tree. The cable would then spread the tumah to anything under it.

This cable continued on and on for miles. The tumah could potentially spread to anyone who walked under that cable – even miles away from the cemetery. The kohen noted the cemetery, the tree, and the FiOS cable. The bungalow colony he was about to enter was three miles away from the non-Jewish cemetery. Yet, there was this thick cable that could potentially transmit tumah to him if he were to walk under it. As a kohen, he is enjoined from putting himself in contact with tumas meis. This is true even if he was already tamei; even a kohen who is tamei may not expose himself to tumas meis (as a matter of practical halachah, unlike the opinion of the Raavad).

However, the young man recalled an incident in Bava Metzia (114b): Rabbah bar Avuhah noticed that Eliyahu HaNavi was standing in a non-Jewish cemetery. Rabbah bar Avuhah assumed that Eliyahu was a kohen. After all, Reish Lakish says that Eliyahu HaNavi and the biblical Pinchas were one and the same. Rabbah bar Avuhah asked Eliyahu what was the basis, since he was a kohen, for him to be present in a non-Jewish cemetery. Eliyahu responded that Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai is of the opinion that only a Jewish meis transmits tumah to anything above it (tumas ohel). This law doesn’t apply to a non-Jewish meis, as long as one does not physically touch the meis. Hence, Eliyahu argued that as long as he was not touching a gentile meis but was only above a non-Jewish meis, he was fine.

According to this ruling, the non-Jewish cemetery in South Fallsburg did not present a problem. The non-Jewish grave would not transmit tumah up to the tree, and the tree would not spread the tumah to the cable.

However, Tosfos quote Rabbeinu Yitzchak that we do not follow the ruling of Eliyah HaNavi. In fact, non-Jewish graves transmit tumah in the same way that Jewish graves do. Furthermore, Tosfos suggest that even Eliyahu HaNavi himself agrees to this. Perhaps his response to Rabbah bar Avuhah was just to engage him in conversation.

The Gemara goes on to relate that Eliyahu HaNavi proceeded to ask Rabbah bar Avuhah why he was not familiar with the ruling of Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai. (This led to a discussion and an incident based on Rabbah bar Avuhah’s severe lack of funds.) In truth, the reason Eliyahu HaNavi was in the non-Jewish graveyard was that he was not really a kohen. Tosfos quote a source that Eliyahu HaNavi said about himself that he is a descendant of the matriarch Rochel. (Perhaps Reish Lakish did not mean literally that Pinchas and Eliyahu were one and the same; rather, they shared some spiritual connection.)

In the final analysis, there is a machlokes Rishonim on what the practical halachah is. The Rambam rules like Eliyahu HaNavi – that gentile graves do not transmit tumah via ohel. Tosfos rule that they do. In the above anecdote, the young kohen initially assumed based on a simple reading of the Gemara in Bava Metzia that gentile graves do not transmit tumah, just like the Rambam held. When he recalled that Eliyahu HaNavi might not have been a kohen, that led him to contemplate alternate understandings of the Gemara, like that of Tosfos. Perhaps that was the true reason Eliyahu HaNavi was in the non-Jewish cemetery.

So he called his rabbi who said to follow the ruling of the Shulchan Aruch and the Rema (YD 372:2). A kohen should be stringent and assume that non-Jewish graves transmit tumah via ohel in the same way that Jewish graves do. Hence, the grave transmits tumah to the tree, the tree transmits tumah to the cable, and the cable transmits tumah to anything under it.

However, there is a group of chassidim who specialize in issues of tumas meis. When they found out about the issue, they swooped into action. They quickly obtained the necessary permission, and they cut down the offending branches.

Problem solved.

Postscript: The above anecdote is a dramatized version of what really occurred. But for the sake of making the record complete, two additional facts are noted. There was a Verizon worker who happened to be near the cemetery. He graciously agreed to measure the diameter of the cable and reported it as 3.3 inches. A tefach is somewhere between 3 and 4 inches. Only an ohel that measures at least a tefach is capable of transmitting tumah. The young man’s rabbi opined that if the cable was indeed only 3.3 inches, he did not need to be stringent. The cable would have to be slightly bigger to create a problem.

Another interesting facet was that the offending grave, that of Mr. Gamble, was mysteriously set apart from the other graves. An elderly resident of the area said that he remembered that Mr. Gamble was, in fact, Jewish. Perhaps that’s why he was buried apart from everyone else. If true, it would create a graver issue, so to speak. However, a preliminary investigation failed to turn up any of Mr. Gamble’s relatives who could confirm or dispute the fact that he was Jewish. Incidentally, those who visit Yeshivas Vishnitz in South Fallsburg are surely aware of Gamble Road that was named for Mr. Gamble.