Beis Moshiach spoke with Rabbi Yaakov Roza, Rabbinical Committee Chairman of ZAKA, and heard about his challenging work and his interactions with the Rebbe’s shluchim around the world, about his encounter with the Rebbe, and a fascinating story of Divine Providence having to do with an old man from Malachovka.
By Mendy Dickstein
The P. family from Haifa wanted to carry out their mother’s will. She died at 82 and wanted to be buried in Bryansk in Russia, near her husband’s grave.
Her son looked on the internet for a company that transports bodies from Eretz Yisroel to Russia and found such a company. They told him that the cost of flying her body to Russia is 20,000 shekels (about $5300). The son said he could not afford that. They suggested an alternative that would cost only 10,500 shekels: cremating the body and transporting her ashes to Russia.
The company even told the son that there was no problem from a Jewish perspective in burning the body because this is what used to be done.
The son agreed to this suggestion and quickly sent the company the paperwork and permission to cremate the body.
When his workmate at the Tax Office in Tel Aviv heard about this, he was horrified at the idea of cremation and he told the head of the Rabbinical Committee of ZAKA, Rabbi Yaakov Roza, all about it. R’ Roza, who has probably seen and heard everything having to do with the dead, got his fellow ZAKA colleagues involved, in collaboration with the Rebbe’s shluchim.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Zaklos, shliach in Bryansk, located the family in Russia and affirmed that it is a Jewish family. The chief rabbi of Russia, Rabbi Berel Lazar, issued instructions to pay the cost of burial of the woman in Russia. The director of the legal department of ZAKA in Eretz Yisroel, with the help of the Haifa chevra Kadisha, were able to lower the expenses in Eretz Yisroel to the minimum and to pay for the costs of caring for and flying the body.
This is one example out of many of the cooperation between Rabbi Yaakov Roza and the Rebbe’s shluchim.
I was familiar with the name Rabbi Yaakov Roza, considered the leading rabbinic expert in identifying bodies, for many years. I can easily pick out his picture from the images that appear in public in times of tragedy, as can many Israeli citizens. On a personal level, I have seen him at our family simchas due to my father’s role as a ZAKA supervisor in Beer Sheva.
Still, I never spoke with him until this interview. I was a little nervous to talk to him, thinking he was probably a tough, cynical person whose work with the dead has worn on him and his personality. It was a pleasant surprise to have an uplifting conversation filled with humor, with a warm person whose joy in life is expressed in everything he says.
He began with a D’var Torah about the laws of mourning, quoting the Ohr HaChayim HaKadosh. “In his commentary on the Parsha (VaYechi), the Ohr HaChayim proves that Yaakov Avinu did not die from a halachic perspective too, because it is prohibited to kiss a departed person. Yosef kissed Yaakov, which shows this was not a typical death.”
ENCOUNTER
WITH THE REBBE
R’ Yaakov Roza was born in 5704/1944 in Tel Aviv. His parents moved to B’nei Brak when he was young, where his father founded the Segula school. R’ Roza attended established yeshivos: HaYishuv HaChadash and Chevron.
After spending a few years on an educational mission in Toronto, he returned to Eretz Yisroel and was a teacher and principal in the Segula school. Years later, he served as rosh yeshiva in the Aderet yeshiva high school in Bat Yam.
During the years when he lived in Toronto, he visited the Rebbe’s court and even received a dollar. (This was at the beginning of the 80s, before “Sunday dollars.”). When R’ Roza describes the visit, he says, “The experience of meeting the Rebbe is etched deeply in my heart. While I faced the Rebbe, I felt as though the entire world around me did not exist; it was just the Rebbe and me. This encounter is with me till today.”
FORGED IN
THE FIRE OF WAR
R’ Roza is a member of the governing rabbinic council (Moetzes) of the Israel Chief Rabbinate and is currently in his third term. In the recent elections, held this past summer, he was chosen with the most votes for first place out of ten rabbanim who were elected to the council. Today, he serves as the representative of this Moetzes at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute, and also as the chief consultant to the Chief Rabbi of the IDF on matters having to do with corpses.
Until recently, he served as rav in southern Bat Yam. Upon retiring from his position as rav, he still has people meeting with him and consulting with him on a variety of subjects. When he describes his job as rav of a neighborhood, he says it’s a full-time social work position. Although his official rabbinic job ended because of his age, the needs and neediness of the public have not ended.
How did you get involved in such a loaded field of work like identifying bodies and kvod ha’meis (respect for the dead)?
“I will admit that my motivations were not pure,” he says. “After I married, I did a shortened military service and was supposed to be a front-line sapper. I was afraid of the danger this entailed. At the time, they were looking for volunteers for the military chevra kadisha and I volunteered, so I wouldn’t have to be a sapper. Since then, I’ve remained involved.”
In Tishrei 5734, a month after he volunteered, is when the Yom Kippur War broke out. According to R’ Roza, the war, which cost us 2000 dead in terrible conditions, “was the best school to learn how to deal with bodies, the difficulties in identification and gathering body parts, and what psychological abilities are needed for a person who deals with this.”
Science has advanced tremendously since the Yom Kippur War. Among other things, DNA is now routinely used for identification purposes. Does halacha allow for this?
“According to halacha, you can identify a person by looking at his face. Full facial identification of a person is considered incontrovertible identification. The other manner is through definitive signs on the body. According to halacha, the more unusual the sign the more reliable it is. If science discovered signs in a person’s body that are unique to each person individually, then halacha accepts this. In halacha it says on this subject that ‘the sages should judge according to the matter,’ and this is true for DNA identification, which is unique to every person.
“I have a written p’sak halacha from Rabbi Shmuel Wosner zt”l and other rabbanim that an aguna can be released on the basis of DNA evidence. Likewise, halacha accepts unique dental characteristics, including unique fillings and root structures. When it comes to identification, science helps halacha.”
While on this subject, R’ Roza recounts his involvement in identifying the victims in the shocking attack on the Chabad House in Mumbai. According to halacha, you can identify the dead “based on face and nose,” only within three days of their death. In this case, the attack which began on a Thursday (and according to the assessment of the security forces they were murdered immediately) lasted three days and it was first on Sunday that security forces broke into the building and took control of the situation.
Because three days had passed since they were killed, a complicated halachic problem arose in how to identify them, especially the guests of the Chabad House who were married and where agunos were concerned.
Without going into the details and to preserve the dignity of the dead, R’ Roza, who was in charge of the identification team in Eretz Yisroel, was able to find halachic ways to identify them all and bring them to Jewish burial with absolute certainty.
Despite the decade that has passed since then, R’ Yaakov Roza speaks with intense emotion about the singular event of the gathering of the beis din to release the “chained wives” of the victims in Yerushalayim. The members of the beis din were leaders and poskei ha’dor, with Rav Wosner at the helm. Joining him were Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch and Rabbi Meir Bransdorfer, Rabbi Moshe Shaul Klein, and others.
R’ Roza had gone two days without sleep and made his appearance through great exertion to testify before these distinguished rabbis so the wives would be free to marry. The discussions were sharp and the questions were incisive, indicating no allowance for any compromising. At the end of the process, the rabbanim ratified the identifications and issued the permission for the wives to remarry in the future.
What connection do you have with the shluchim?
“My connection with the shluchim began over a decade ago at the European-Asian Kinus HaShluchim, that took place at the Chabad mosdos in Moscow. At the Kinus, I gave a number of courses on the topic of chevra kadisha and preserving the dignity of the dead for young shluchim, some of whom had no experience in this.
“Here’s a story connected with that visit. During the Kinus, I made a special trip to Malachovka, on the outskirts of Moscow. This town played a prominent role in the amazing stories of personal sacrifice and danger involved in preserving religion and Jewish tradition under communist rule. There is an old Jewish cemetery there that was in use throughout this terrible time.
“As I walked through the cemetery, accompanied by Rabbi Moshe Tamarin, the local shliach, I met an old Jew who was moser nefesh to provide a proper tahara for the deceased. He was particular about the laws and customs regarding tahara. There is a stringency to perform the tahara on the deceased in an upright position, and this man showed me a special contraption (quite primitive) that enabled him to stand the body upright during the purification process.
“As part of the course, I brought linen shrouds with me. Shrouds do not need to be made of linen; cotton can also be used, and they are used most of the time, but there is a hiddur to use linen. It says in Pischei Teshuva that someone buried in linen shrouds is saved from chibut ha’kever.
“After I completed the tour of the cemetery in Malachovka, R’ Tamarin wanted me to leave the shrouds I had brought from Eretz Yisroel with him. I agreed and we parted while exchanging phone numbers.
“A few weeks after I returned home, I got a phone call from my new friend, R’ Tamarin. He told me that the man who had done the taharas in the best possible way, had died and merited to be buried in the shrouds I had left with him. I considered this a sign from heaven that they took care of the soul of the person who had himself cared for the dead.”
CHALLENGING MOMENTS
I spoke with R’ Roza not only about his work and his collaboration with shluchim, but also about subjects that come up now and then among the religious public.
We sometimes see demonstrations among the religious public against autopsies done by the Forensic Institute. How do you come into the picture?
“In 90% of the cases, the Israeli police demands the autopsy. The Forensic Institute does not do autopsies on its own. When there is an unnatural death like a road accident, terrorist attack or murder, the police require an autopsy to determine the cause of death or to ensure that they can find evidence against the murderer.
“There are three types of requests that the police file: A situation in which the police suffice with external examination, in which case there is no halachic problem because the body is not touched and there is no invasive examination. Another situation, more rare, is when police investigators suffice with a partial autopsy. For example, when they find a bullet in someone, it is possible that for the purpose of the investigation it would suffice to just remove the bullet. In such a case, poskim need to be consulted. If removing the bullet will incriminate the murderer, it is permissible according to halacha.
“The third situation, the worst and most difficult from a halachic perspective, is when a comprehensive autopsy is required. In such a case, I pretty much do not know of a single situation in which halacha will allow it. If the Israeli police or other office demands a full autopsy and the family opposes it, the police commander must go to court and get permission to proceed. We at ZAKA have a legal department that provides pro bono lawyers to represent the family. In most cases, they are able to convince the judge that a full autopsy is unnecessary, except in a murder case.”
R’ Roza then elaborated on the complete reversal that ZAKA has accomplished when it comes to kvod ha’meis. Previously, when a person died an unnatural death, as in a road accident, after the scene of the accident was made available by the police, ambulances would come to collect the bodies and would leave the area to be cleaned by the fire department etc.
“I can’t forget something that happened when ZAKA was starting out,” says R’ Roza. “After a road accident in Yaffo, while the highway was strewn with body tissue from the crash victim, I asked the scene commander what would be done with these remains, and he said that the firemen would be coming soon and would spray the road clean.
“That doesn’t happen anymore. Respect for the departed has, over the years of ZAKA’s existence, reached all levels of those in charge of dealing with such things. Today, when there is an unnatural death, the enforcement agencies themselves immediately call ZAKA volunteers to come to the scene and take care of things in the most respectful way.”
What are the hardest things for you when it comes to identifying people?
“When it’s a young man, perfectly healthy, who was killed under tragic circumstances through no fault of his own, such as a car accident due to drunkenness. The latter is an unnecessary death and you feel more anger than sadness. In general, the hardest thing is seeing the body of a child; it makes no difference whether he died of an illness or an accident. It’s very hard.
“In cases where I am involved in identifying combatants and soldiers, in addition to all of the personal feelings, I also feel a deep moral obligation to treat them with the utmost respect; to do everything possible so that the identification is accomplished according to halacha and they are brought to a dignified burial. Since the Yom Kippur War, I have that feeling that I owe them a tremendous debt; whatever is done for them is still not enough to pay them back.”
In the course of your work, have you ever felt that you reached the breaking point?
“I had one mini breakdown. During the Yom Kippur War, while dealing with the bodies, I discovered the body of my cousin on a stretcher. There was no time to deal with him; we were few people on the southern front. The chevra sent me to sleep. It took me a year to get over that.”
IT’S EASIER FOR JEWS WHO BELIEVE
The encounter with death, the pain and bereavement, sometimes (often) raises the question of why this happened. I asked R’ Roza whether he has dealt with this sort of question himself.
“I agree that this question bores away at a person, not just for me but also for the families. I see a difference in how families with emuna deal with death as opposed to those without emuna. When a tragedy occurs, G-d forbid, in families with emuna, they accept the situation and say, ‘It’s all from heaven.’ The reaction of families who are not such believers is, ‘Why did this happen to me?’
“As people who believe in the eternal life of the soul and that death is a transition from one world to another, we accept it with less difficulty. A few years ago, I spoke to bereaved parents at a Memorial Day event for fallen soldiers. I told them that death is not a complete termination, but a transition from one world to another. There is always something that remains in existence and one can do things on its behalf. After the ceremony, dozens of parents came over to me and said, ‘You have consoled us.’”
How do you yourself deal with the constant encounter with death?
“I believe with perfect faith that if I ended up in this role, then Hashem gave me the ability to handle it; this strengthens me.”
THE HEROIC WORK OF THE SHLUCHIM
Throughout the generations, Jews considered it a great privilege to be involved in the great mitzva of dealing with the dead and preserving their honor. In certain eras, people even fought over the privilege of belonging to the chevra kadisha, and when they were unsuccessful, they went to beis din and asked them for the right to participate in this mitzva. Members of the chevra kadisha did not consider their membership as a means to an end, to make a fortune. This work was done without pay, with a sense of responsibility and utmost gravity.
I asked R’ Roza, as someone who has played a leading role ever since the founding of ZAKA, whether ZAKA volunteers, those we see at work at various tragic scenes, are considered as members of the chevra kadisha. R’ Roza smiled and said, “Many years ago, when ZAKA was first starting out, I went to R’ Wosner one morning and asked him precisely this question. He paskened based on earlier responsa that whoever deals with burial and ‘chesed shel emes’ has a din of chevra kadisha. Interestingly, many volunteers prefer to avoid this term, but there is a clear p’sak halacha regarding it.
“There is a responsum from the Maharsham, in Yoreh Deiah siman 100. It says that on the island of Corfu there was a disagreement between local askanim of the Jewish community and members of the chevra kadisha. The disagreement was presented to the Maharsham. He paskened that if there is a group of people who are willing to deal with the dead, they must be treated respectfully. He goes on to compare those who deal with the dead to those early Jews who lived in Eretz Yisroel and brought their bikkurim fruit to Yerushalayim and when people saw them being oleh l’regel, they stood up for them.”
What message do you have for our Lubavitcher readers?
“We generally praise the work of Chabad among the living. But I want to extol the mesirus nefesh of the shluchim in the area of preserving the dignity of the dead. It is a part of their work that is hardly written about.
“I have memories of bitter battles against foreign governments around the world who do not always understand the Jewish-religious sensitivities when it comes to autopsies, the sacrifices involved in identifying the dead and the tremendous efforts involved in flying them to Eretz Yisroel.
“I personally witnessed the learning done by the shluchim, young men, learning how to purify the dead and how to bring a Jew to burial according to halacha. I also remember the accelerated courses that I provided over the phone to a young shliach who was suddenly involved in a tragic situation but had no tools available to him to carry out the holy work. Still, with mesirus nefesh, he learned the halachos and practices and implemented them to the best of his abilities.
“As I said, this unusual aspect of shlichus is something about which the general public is unaware, but I am quite familiar with it and I greatly admire the shluchim who, in addition to their tremendous work with the living, also are devoted to those who passed from this world.”
Final words?
“I wish your readers long and healthy lives.”