0558 - Letter of the Rebbe Explaining the Cruelty of Cremation

00:01 Concerning how terrible it is to do a cremation, there is a letter from the Rebbe from Dalet Hey, Vov Tov, Shin, Mem, Gimel, which was an answer to a shlucha who asked the Rebbe what hesber, what explanation can she give to a son to tell his father, to explain to his father why he shouldn't have his body cremated after he passes away. And this is a very strong letter, and this is the lotion of the letter. The Rebbe says like this, "Lehareitza rachmanu ve'tzlan sheyisrefu gufei le'achrei hamise." For somebody who wants rachmanu ve'tzlan, that they should burn his body after he dies, "Yesheimar borur ubepashtes," you could say clearly and very simply, and the word borur ubepashtes, which means clearly and simply, is underlined. You could say like this, "Shelehaguf yesh lekiyum ume'ein chayim gam le'achas siluk haneshame." That the body has an existence and has a me'ein chayim, and the words ume'ein chayim, which means some k- some level of life, that was in quotations, these two words, ume'ein chayim, that even after the neshamah leaves the body, there is still an existence and some type of life to the neshamah. "Vechol zman shelo nirkef haguf legamar," and as long as the body did not rot completely, "cheilik mehaneshame kosher bei," part of the neshamah is connected to it, connected to the body. "Vechol hametzave imaskem lisref es gufei," anybody who says or commands or tells, or at least even agrees that they should burn his body, "harei ze haskomah lisref cheilik maneshame." That's

01:42 an agreement to burn part of the neshamah. "Me'ein srefas adam chai," to a certain degree, like burning a live person. And then in parentheses, the Rebbe says, "elo shelo kule, elo chelki," but not the whole person, but only part of him. And in this parentheses, there's another parentheses, and the Rebbe uses the words, "Achzorias me'ein komeiu," a cruelty that there's nothing like it. And then the Rebbe continues, "Vafila beseref nishmas atzme rachmanu ve'tzlan," and even if somebody burns his own neshamah, which means a person says, "I could do it to myself." No one else could do it to me, basically. I'm just explaining what the Rebbe says. But what-- For himself, he could do it. "Umatzdik atzme," and he justifies himself. "Shelo yoda ma ese lehatain leshaed or ma eine lehatain leshaed kam anoshim osekim," that he justifies himself that he didn't know what to answer to this taine that other people already did it. In other words, basically, it seems like what he's saying, the person says, "You see, other people did it, so it's done already, so I could also do it." And this guy justifies himself that he doesn't know what to answer to that question. So the Rebbe writes, "Harei alfei nazim sorfu anoshim chayim amesh," thousands of Nazis burned regular live people. "Ubeineiem adonim, reifim, seichim, baalim mishpacha vechula," and amongst them were scientists and doctors and businessmen and family people, et cetera, et cetera. And they did it. That's the end of the letter. But what he's saying is,

03:12 so someone will say, "Well, since thousands of cases were done that they actually burned a live person, so someone else could do it also." Same thing here, because people did it, it means I could do it also. But in Nekudim, there's a very, very strong Nekudim that by doing cremation, you're basically doing something me'ein of shefichas damim, of killing somebody, burning the... Just like you would be burning a live person to a certain degree.