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The small Jewish world typically leads one to fascinating tales. Our son-in-law, Col. Avner Cohen, is the director basic of the Chief Rabbinate of the IDF. Someday, he talked about that they’ve girls in a specialised hevra kadisha unit. Hevra kadisha (“holy society”) is the generic title for the group that exists in each metropolis the place there are Jews, generally often known as “burial society.” Its work entails getting ready the physique for a Jewish burial and finishing up the burial on the website of the cemetery in line with Jewish legislation. As a consequence of the truth that the one who has handed away can by no means personally repay the hevra kadisha for his or her diligence and kindness, it’s a mitzvah that is named hesed shel emet – a real kindness, not one with any ulterior motive.
Troopers within the IDF, male or feminine, who lose their life whereas enlisted are taken care of by the military’s hevra kadisha and have the fitting to be buried in a military cemetery.
It’s typically extra painfully difficult. Every soldier wears a canine tag together with his or her title and identification quantity, however there are conditions by which it is perhaps tough to determine the individual because of the state of the physique if the soldier has have fallen in battle or in a terror assault, by which case forensic specialists are referred to as in.
Ladies and the efficiency of ‘tahara’
If a feminine soldier dies whereas enlisted, she is taken care of by the military simply as the boys are. However till 12 years in the past, as feminine troopers’ deaths have been few and much between, volunteer girls from across the nation who labored for the hevra kadishas of their hometowns have been referred to as upon to help the military professionals within the preparation for burial.
Within the final 10 years, extra girls are getting into fight models within the military, thus elevating the chance of extra feminine deaths. On account of this new actuality, the IDF Rabbinate realized that it might be vital to have girls help within the identification course of and burial preparation for feminine fallen troopers, often known as halala (a male fallen soldier is a halal). Subsequently, the IDF determined to create a chosen unit for this goal and have feminine volunteers bear specialised coaching.
In July 2023, the IDF Rabbinate determined to draft and categorize these volunteers as “troopers serving on miluim [reserve duty].” Now once they come to volunteer, they’re thought of official members of the IDF. They’re issued canine tags and uniforms (though they aren’t required to put on them). To this point, there are 15 girls within the group from Jerusalem and the middle of the nation, and 17 from the North.
From Teaneck to the IDF girls’s burial committee
In 2010, Sharon Laufer, initially of Teaneck, New Jersey, then residing in Jerusalem, recruited the primary group of eight girls volunteers. Later that 12 months, Laufer and her household moved to Efrat, and she or he started serving within the hevra kadisha there.
Laufer says that her curiosity in being part of this program goes again to her childhood.
“As a baby, I used to be very fearful and anxious about dying, to the purpose that I felt it typically incapacitated me. Then, once I was 16 years outdated, I went to summer season camp, and the theme of one of many weeks was Life Cycle Occasions. For one nighttime exercise, they introduced folks from a hevra kadisha to talk to the youngsters; they introduced tahrihim (shrouds) to indicate us. I’m 64, and I bear in mind this like yesterday. And I believed, ‘That is superb. I would like extra info.’ It wasn’t till 13 years later that I bought ‘extra info.’
“Once I was 29 and residing in Teaneck with my husband, Nathan, there was a discover on the shul bulletin board requesting volunteers for the ladies’s hevra kadisha. I answered the message and I mentioned, ‘If there’s a tahara [cleansing of the body before burial] wanted, name me; I’d prefer to see if I can do that.’ I bought a name one morning in March of 1989 and was requested if I wished to come back and assist. Once I arrived, the chief of the group mentioned, ‘You’re welcome to assist and observe and if at any level you’re uncomfortable, you’ll be able to depart; we’ll reply your questions later.’
“That day was a turning level in my life not solely as a result of it was the start of my service however as a result of I discovered that it opened my coronary heart in a method like nothing else that I might select to do. So I served on the hevra kadisha till making aliyah in 2003.”
Overcoming worry of dying
This work helped Laufer overcome her worry of dying. “You stroll into the tahara room and also you don’t know very a lot in regards to the individual on the desk; nonetheless, the physique and the soul communicate volumes in case you’re open to listening.
“If somebody has died tragically – by suicide, homicide, or an accident – typically you’re feeling the presence of the neshama (soul); and if I’m lucky sufficient, throughout any tahara that I may help that neshama go on, then I really feel I’m doing one thing for this individual. So I ask for assist from Hashem earlier than I’m going into any tahara, in order that I can be given the consciousness to attach with the neshama and be compassionate and provides assist the place assist is required,” says Laufer.
“I used to be in a position to perceive that there’s extra past simply the physique and that the neshama wants assist even after it dies – and it’s okay. Loss of life is okay.”
Laufer describes the method of a tahara as a lady is ready for burial: “It is extremely much like the method that non secular girls undergo each month of their childbearing years as they put together to go to the mikveh. Nevertheless, on this scenario, it’s the final preparation. And if she lived a protracted life, she in all probability hasn’t gone to the mikveh for a very long time. We do that preparation for her for the final time.”
Coming to Israel and the IDF
“In 2003, throughout my first 12 months in Israel, I questioned, ‘How may I proceed my service with the hevra kadisha?’ However there had been no method for it to occur in Jerusalem as a result of it’s not open to volunteers,” she says.
In 2006, Laufer’s brother-in-law, Shimon Perchik, a colonel within the IDF reserves, was the designated mission chief to develop a pc system and related protocols that may enhance the power and accuracy to determine troopers who had died or been killed whereas in lively service (see field).
“Shimon knew about my service in America, and he knew about my frustration about not with the ability to serve right here in the identical capability; so in April of 2010, he approached me and mentioned that as there are actually extra girls in fight models, there are going to be extra feminine causalities, and it’s not acceptable for the male troopers to be dealing with girls’s our bodies. He requested me if I might be focused on recruiting a gaggle of ladies in two separate capacities.
“The primary group wanted to be laptop savvy, and the second group wanted to be composed of ladies who wouldn’t be afraid to work with a lady’s useless physique. Collectively, these girls would assist with the pc system and the manipulation of the halalot through the examination and identification technique of any halala. They might even be skilled to deal with conditions of mass casualties.
“I went to all my pals, particularly my computer-savvy and doctor pals. I additionally approached girls who I believed can be okay with dealing with a useless physique, providing them the chance to volunteer for this particular unit,” she recounts.
On April 8, 2010, she introduced collectively eight girls for his or her first briefing at her condominium in Jerusalem. “Shimon defined what they have been on the lookout for and the way we’d be linked to a particular unit that gathers info on the deceased.
“In June 2010, 5 of the unique eight went with me to the designated military base, and we had our first coaching session. The next 12 months the group had grown, and we had our first official full coaching utilizing the pc system and dealing with an precise mannequin.”
There they have been proven the method of what goes into the identification of a soldier and taught easy methods to take fingerprints.
“The method of identification could be very detailed in order that there can be no unanswered questions as to the reason for dying and the proof of identification of the fallen soldier. All of the protocols are rigorously adopted. We’re in a position to match dental information, fingerprints, and DNA to the primary information system to verify identification. In some instances, private results discovered with the physique may help with the identification.
“All the pieces we do helps the military to be extra environment friendly and exact and to verify there are not any errors and that the whole lot is finished bekavod, respectfully,” she says.
The primary call-up and recruitment
“On July 18, 2011, we bought our first call-up. After my first expertise, I despatched an electronic mail to the ladies who had been with me, together with the next feedback: ‘I consider that the expertise was vital for the three of us; however extra importantly, it was apparent that our unit performs a vital function for the [IDF] Rabbanut relating to kavod hamet [respect for the dead]…There isn’t a acceptable method for male troopers to be a part of this course of for a feminine soldier. The examination could be very detailed and really intimate… I believe that we’re lucky that the Rabbanut has acknowledged this reality and is doing one thing vital about it,’” she recounts.
Laufer says, “Any hevra kadisha I’ve been part of is aware of that after we’ve been via a tahara, you will need to have a debrief of the ladies concerned, so every of us can speak about how we felt and if there’s something we have to course of.”
After their call-up, Shimon advised them that after the identification of the physique, their group would proceed with the tahara and that they’d not must name within the girls from Bnei Brak who had beforehand volunteered to carry out the latter job.
“We have been now a gaggle of 9 girls, largely from Jerusalem and Ra’anana, the latter have been a part of the hevra kadisha there, so we’d have sufficient ‘girl energy’ to deal with any identification and tahara scenario,” she explains.
After shifting to Efrat and becoming a member of the hevra kadisha there, Laufer was in a position to recruit further girls.
“Since 2012 our group of ladies is repeatedly referred to as upon for taharot within the IDF, even when no identification examination is important.”
The IDF additionally acknowledged the necessity for a gaggle like this within the North, so recruiting started there in 2019.
“The IDF has come to grasp that they will depend on this group of outstanding girls that’s dedicated, in a position, and accessible to assist in any method wanted. They know they will name any hour of the day, and whoever is on the market says, ‘I’ll come.’”
They work out of a base within the heart of the nation and the DNA lab is on the bottom, which, Laufer explains, allows a speedy affirmation of identification. “Typically, when the decision comes very early within the morning, the ladies from Ra’anana get there first.
“Our dedication over the past 12 years has given the IDF the chance to acknowledge us formally and have given us the standing of miluim – reserve troopers. To be clear, it’s potential for us to proceed to serve in a voluntary capability if a few of us don’t need to really be drafted. However bureaucratically, it’s simpler for the military to have the ability to designate us as a part of the miluim unit of the Rabbinate.
“No less than every year we do a full-fledged targil (follow train) with all of the reserve troopers from the Rabbinate working with us.”
Dealing with the emotional facet of the job
“It’s my path in life. It’s what I used to be put right here to do. This has adopted me my entire life, since my worry of dying as a baby. I’ve been given the power to do it, and it’s a present from God.
“My husband has been supportive of my service all these years, however he’s all the time questioned if this can have an effect on me emotionally and be an issue, so we speak about how I’m feeling after a tahara or what it might be like for me if there’s a scenario with many casualties and I’ve to work for 8-9 hours. Baruch Hashem we now have not been in that scenario, however I think about it might be exhausting.
“When one is a part of the common hevra kadisha, one usually cares for aged people who’ve lived full lives. Within the military, the bulk are youthful, which is saddening,” says Laufer.
Being within the IDF at 64
“I used to be all the time ‘jealous’ of my children who served within the IDF. And certainly, receiving a canine tag and uniform at 64 is admittedly hilarious. My household understood my need to serve and the way significantly I take my service. I not too long ago participated within the preparation of a halala for the military on a Friday, and I mentioned to my household once I got here again that it made my Shabbos. They mentioned, ‘Ima, actually you’re so bizarre. Solely you’d say that dealing with a useless physique made your Shabbos.’”
The religious side and the privilege
“I really feel that it’s vital to ask Hashem for assist in order that we are able to do the whole lot bekavod, respectfully. All of us ask mehila [forgiveness] from the neshama of the deceased after we’re performed. I all the time make some extent of holding the hand of the deceased individual and opening my coronary heart to provide love and help so they’ll know they’re liked.
“There have been occasions when you’ll be able to really feel the vitality within the room could be very tense, possibly as a result of it was a traumatic dying. I’ve had experiences the place by the tip once we’ve cleaned and ready and washed and dressed and given closure, that you may really feel that pressure launched from the room, and that’s my clarification of the neshama, the soul, shifting on.”
“In a single case, involving a suicide, the girl’s worry and anger have been palpable. We helped her transfer on, a shared unstated understanding amongst all of us within the tahara room.
“Each scenario is totally different. I work very arduous to guarantee that earlier than I’m going in to do a tahara, for the military or via the Efrat hevra kadisha, I ask for assist and energy to do what must be performed. I see myself as a device, as a car for doing God’s work. We develop into the car for getting ready the neshama to depart the physique as a result of we’ve taken the second to respect the physique and to provide thanks for the service that the physique has given this neshama.
“Loss of life shouldn’t be one thing to be hush-hush about. It’s a part of the life cycle. For those who will be part of serving to the neshama to finish its cycle, it’s a actual privilege to take action,” she asserts.
Attending to know Col. (res.) Shimon Perchik
In September 1971, Shimon Perchik joined the IDF Rabbinate’s casualty therapy system after finishing his common army service within the ninth Firm of the Common Employees of the army rabbinate, numbering 160 troopers.
“Two years later, through the Yom Kippur Warfare,” he says, “I discovered myself main a platoon on the Egyptian entrance with the mission of evacuating, figuring out, and offering dignified burials for our fallen comrades. This expertise profoundly uncovered the necessity for enhancing the IDF’s therapy of its fallen heroes, and for me it turned a private mission.”
Within the post-Yom Kippur Warfare years, he continued his service within the reserves, instructing hevra kadisha programs and contributing to the event of a army fight doctrine of casualty therapy. He served because the deputy commander of Firm 9 and later as its commander. His firm confronted quite a few catastrophic occasions, even in peacetime, together with helicopter crashes and horrific terror assaults.
“Inside our ranks, a gaggle of officers and commanders, lots of them Yom Kippur Warfare veterans, shared a typical objective – steady enhancement of the IDF’s casualty therapy system via operational investigations and lesson implementation.”
Recognizing the necessity to strengthen casualty response after the Gulf Warfare in 1991, Firm 9 was expanded and have become a battalion of 360 troopers, named Yakam, and headed by Perchik, who was promoted to lieutenant colonel.
“This marked a turning level in our mission to enhance casualty therapy inside the IDF,” he says.
In 2011, the Merchav (the IDF Rabbinate emergency coaching for casualty therapy) mission was initiated, and Perchik accepted Rabbi Israel Weiss’s request to tackle long-term reserve service and develop into the mission’s coordinator. He says that this considerably improved the IDF’s casualty therapy system. In 2005 he was awarded the rank of colonel by then-chief of employees Moshe Bogi Ya’alon. In 2011, he assumed command of the Malbach Corps (the chief of employees’s unit for casualty therapy).
“Our expertise in Firm 9 through the Six Day Warfare and the Yom Kippur Warfare strengthened in us the significance of upholding Torah and Jewish morality, guiding us in honoring the fallen and supporting bereaved households. The IDF Rabbinate has develop into an integral a part of the whole IDF, due to devoted troopers and commanders honoring the fallen in Israel and overseas. This dedication outcomes from collaborative efforts throughout IDF divisions,” Perchik says.
“We pray that our unit’s operations are by no means wanted. Within the phrases of Isaiah, ‘He’ll swallow up dying endlessly; the Lord God, He’ll wipe each tear from each face. He’ll sweep His folks’s disgrace away from all of the Earth. The Lord has spoken’” (Isaiah 25:8). ■
The author is an award-winning journalist, director of Elevate Your Spirits Theatre, Mikva the Musical, and the Na’na and Hamra Playback troupes, and editor-in-chief of WholeFamily.com.
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