Unattended, Lifeless Bodies

7 Iyar 5782

[G‑d told Moses that a high priest] may not ritually defile himself by touching a corpse [unless there is no one else to bury it]. (Vayikra 21:11)

“The high priest’s obligation to ritually defile himself in order to bury an unattended corpse applies even in the unlikely event that such a situation presents itself while he is performing the sacrificial rites of Yom Kippur in the Holy of Holies. If there is no one else who can bury this corpse, the high priest must leave the most sacred part of the Tabernacle on the holiest day of the year in order to do so. This teaches us, firstly, that taking care of our fellow Jews’ crucial needs takes precedence over tending to our own spiritual tasks.” (Daily Wisdom, Lubavitcher Rebbe)

“He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn to our G‑d; multitudes will see and fear, and will trust in the L‑rd.” (Tehillim 40:4)

It is our job to sing a hymn to our G‑d, to make him known among the multitudes, that they will see, fear and trust in the L‑rd: “We sometimes encounter people who may be considered, figuratively speaking, ‘unattended, lifeless bodies’ – i.e., people who pay no attention to the spiritual side of life and who have no one else to guide them in this regard. In such cases, we must seize the opportunity to assist them, reminding ourselves that even the high priest is required to disregard his most exalted responsibilities on the holy day of Yom Kippur in order to bury an unattended corpse. We, in contrast, have both the obligation and privilege of not merely attending to a ’lifeless’ person – but of reviving him!” (Daily Wisdom, Lubavitcher Rebbe)

“In a general manner, the 248 positive mitzvot are divided into three categories—right, left, and center—namely, Chesed (‘kindness’), Din (‘stern justice’), and Rachamim (‘mercy’), the two arms and the body.” (Lessons in Tanya, Likutei Amarim, middle of Chapter 46)

Lessons in Tanya comments, “Chesed is the right arm; gevurah, or Din, is the left; and Rachamim represents the body (the center). Just as when a person embraces another he does so with both arms and his body, so, too, do the ’two arms’ and ‘body’ of the mitzvot embrace the Jew who performs them.” Just like the mitzvos embrace us when we perform them, so must we embrace the “unattended, lifeless bodies,” figuratively speaking in the above context, with both arms and the body. We must draw them in, in complete honesty, without complexes or watering anything down, because in truth they are Jews full of potential who were only raised in an environment not conducive to the light of the Torah, as the Rambam rules in today’s Mishneh Torah portion:

“The children of these errant people and their grandchildren whose parents led them away and they were born among these Karaities and raised according to their conception, they are considered as a children captured and raised by them. Such a child may not be eager to follow the path of mitzvot, for it is as if he was compelled not to. Even if later, he hears that he is Jewish and saw Jews and their faith, he is still considered as one who was compelled against observance, for he was raised according to their mistaken path. This applies to those who we mentioned who follow the erroneous Karaite path of their ancestors. Therefore it is appropriate to motivate them to repent and draw them to the power of the Torah with words of peace.”