Q&A: Morality Toward the Dead
Morality Toward the Dead
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Can you explain why there is a moral obligation toward the dead (disgracing the dead, carrying out a will, preserving the cleanliness of a person’s name, etc.)?
The difficulty is obvious: after all, there is no one here who can be harmed (let us assume for the sake of simplicity that he has no heirs and no living family at all).
People often talk about rationalization of values, and still, I would be glad for some kind of rhetorical argument that points in a direction.
Thank you,
Answer
Good question. It may be that the soul that remains in existence is somehow harmed. Or perhaps this is meant to educate us not to harm even someone who is no longer here. As is known, there is a discussion in the Talmud about whether there is a sense of kinship after death, and there is a contradiction on this between Tosafot in Yevamot and Bava Batra.
Discussion on Answer
Where are the Tosafot passages in Bava Batra and Yevamot?
It’s like the question:
Rava said to Rabbah bar Mari: From where is this matter that people say derived: “The well from which you drank—do not throw a stone into it.”
…
The answer is that obviously this is not for the sake of the dead, because the dead person is not here. Rather, it is so that the living should not become corrupted.
It can also be said that since it is known that people care about their own bodies, and if they know that their body will be disgraced and the like, that bothers them (during their lifetime. That is simply a fact, without any value judgment). Therefore, in order to preserve that state of affairs, others too must be careful about the honor of their bodies after death, because of the categorical imperative and so on. So this is a real value and not merely an aesthetic one.
Moshe, see a discussion here:
http://torashageula.org/index.php?title=%D7%99%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%AA_%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%97_%D7%91%D7%94%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%94_%D7%97%D7%9C%D7%A7_%D7%91%D7%B3_-_%D7%A1%D7%99%D7%9E%D7%9F_%D7%A6%D7%92%D7%83_%D7%90%D7%A9%D7%94_%D7%A9%D7%9E%D7%AA%D7%94_%D7%95%D7%A7%D7%9E%D7%94_%D7%91%D7%AA%D7%97%D7%99%D7%99%D7%AA_%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%AA%D7%99%D7%9D_%D7%95%D7%91%D7%A2%D7%9C%D7%94_%D7%97%D7%99&mobileaction=toggle_view_desktop
Just to clarify—the Rabbi’s view is that morality is relevant only where someone is harmed, something most people disagree with. Imagine a family that, at the end of Grandpa’s funeral, makes a barbecue with his flesh. Most people would say there is a moral problem here, and not just a subjective feeling of disgust (same thing with incest).