Rabbis of Schwerin to Moses Mendelssohn

Schwerin, 18 May 1772

15 Iyar 5532 to the Jewish counting

To the man possessed of abundant dominion, wisdom, and understanding, renowned for his knowledge, whose name is spoken of in the far-flung isles, whose breath exudes the hallowed traditions of the faith, the one unto whom the deeds detailing the heavenly constellations are revealed, unto whom night is brightness, unto whom the halakhah is clear as the sun, who acts with benevolence towards both good and evil men, the Talmudic savant, the chieftain of Torah and of the rabbinate, the man perfected, the all-embracing Sage, whose most glorious name is lauded, our master and teacher, Rabbi Moses—may the All-Merciful protect and redeem him!

We have heard a rumor among the gentiles, that they intend to make the people of the Lord transgress, to cause them to walk in the ways of the gentiles. They have made enquiry into matters concerning the dead; they have adopted the pattern of their ancestors. They are going to make due investigation, when they rise against us to compel us to trample upon the law instituted by the ancients, to destroy the edifice of the soul so that the spirit cannot return to the place where it originally was until three days have elapsed. They have ceased to bury him, to place his remains in the ground, just in case he might burst forth out of where he has been placed. These decrees are in writing, contained in the valise of the noble, the ruler, the leader and guide of our community, R. Abraham Starelitz, with a view to showing to His Excellency [Moses Mendelssohn] the decree of the governor, the duke, may his majesty be exalted—yet we shall make mention of the Name of the Lord our God that His Excellency may serve as our advocate and protector before the peoples and the princes, to affirm truth and kindness to the nations; this ruinous situation is now under his powerful control, to address them in their language, employing flowing and incisive eloquence; we shall yet be distinguished from the other nations, as in days of yore; although we are aware that they possess some elements of wisdom, their eyes are plastered over to prevent them seeing, and their hearts from discerning; they are deviating from what is clearly stated in the open letter; but it is for this that he is renowned in Israel before all those who behold us, for the greatness of his knowledge, encompassing numerous elevated branches of wisdom which are like closed books in the regions where we reside; perhaps the same degree of desire as was once manifested by King Solomon will be found within him, too, to dissuade the governor from his intent; and there we would explain that this law of swift burial—albeit not laid down in the Law of Moses, and Moses spoke very well—has been expounded throughout the successive generations as a kind of clay firmly fastened with nails; and what man would be so cruel as to squeeze out the clay in such manner as merely to disturb it and not to knead it?

Let him place a furrow and a bridle into the mouths of those rising and standing up against us for the purpose of uttering vain things against the assembly of the elevated ones, those who have been men of renown from ancient times—and this shall be accounted a memorial to him, an act of kindness and an enduring covenant for those who will behold the consolation of the broken-hearted; and his portion will then be unique, as the foremost individual among the nation, in respect of the abundant goodness that is treasured up for those who fear the Almighty. Such is the view of those who lead the community, the aforesaid overseers and lay leaders of the holy congregation, added to whom now are our righteous teachers, the “insignificant” Joseph Nata of Schwerin, Yeḥiel Mikhel, and the “insignificant” Mordechai, son of the late R. Eliezer Jaffe of blessed memory, of Berlin.

I seek a reply as soon as possible from his exalted Excellency—may he enjoy long life—as we have been ordered to furnish a response on the matter within fourteen days. We are most eager and ready, once again, to be of assistance to him in every way, as this Jewish community is duty-bound to see to it that no further delay should occur—Heaven forbid!

To the Jewish Community of Schwerin [from Moses Mendelssohn]

Berlin, 9 June 1772

8 Sivan 5532, Tuesday—after the Feast of Weeks, 5532, Berlin.

Their delightful letter of last month has duly reached me; and I have seen from it that the governor and ruler of that region has imposed a decree upon them that they are to hold onto the corpses of their deceased for three days before burying them, and my masters are anguished and distressed over this, as though—Heaven forbid—he had desired to make them transgress the halakhah, or to cause them to stumble in respect of a sin involving a Torah-based prohibition or a rabbinic decree. I, however, brutish as I am, do not know why the rabbis have adopted this stance, and what the reason for all the great consternation concerning this matter is. Indeed, even if I were to know that our righteous Messiah had sent them a Talmudic scholar to serve as a spiritual leader and minister, who possessed the requisite knowledge to act in a discerning manner and to issue spiritual guidance, I would nonetheless not refrain from expressing my own view on the matter, and if I have erred, let him guide me and present my case before the Almighty. For in my humble opinion, the matter does not involve making the slightest movement in the direction of transgressing the halakhah—Heaven forbid—as they have thought. If our Sages of blessed memory stated: “One who holds onto the corpse of his departed overnight transgresses a negative command,” they did permit holding on to it—on account of according honor to the dead—for the purpose of fetching a coffin and shrouds and professional mourning women, or so as to enable relatives to inform the adjacent towns (Yoreh de‘ah par. 357); if they permitted holding on to the corpse overnight for such insignificant purposes, how much more so ought it not to be buried were there, in addition, a slight element of doubt in relation to the matter—that is to say, just in case the breath of life still remains within it—and there is nothing that is allowed to stand in the way of saving life!

Now as for the fact that our Sages of blessed memory did not explicitly mention this concern, this appears quite simple to understand, in my humble opinion, for they had no need of this in their times, as they used to bury their dead in caves and in vaults, and they stood guard over them for three days to see whether they were still alive, or whether their spirit had returned to their innermost parts, as is stated in tractate Semaḥot: “We go forth to the graveyard and stand guard over the deceased for up to three days, and we need have no concern that this conduct might be the ways of the Amorites. There was a case where they stood guard over an individual, and he survived for another twenty-five years, after which he died. In another instance, he went on to father five children and died only thereafter.” Now, that being so, the Sages declared with full justification: “Anyone who defers his bier is praiseworthy,” as one need have no concern whatsoever in this regard: but as for ourselves, since we bury our dead in such a way that it is impossible to stand guard over them (see the Perishah), it is most definitely appropriate for us to hold on to the corpses of our departed ones until such time as they have left the category of those who may conceivably still be alive—and were such a thing as is mentioned in tractate Semaḥot to befall us—Heaven forbid—how would we be able to justify ourselves?

Consider! All the medical experts testify and declare that they possess no definitive signs of death having occurred, and that, on occasion, a person loses consciousness to such a degree that the heartbeat has stopped and the breath has totally ceased, and the onlookers think that he is dead, whereas, in fact, he is not; but rather, it is necessary to wait until the flesh begins to decompose and become moldy; and it appears from the words of our Sages of blessed memory that they are in agreement in this matter with the medical experts, as is evident from the incident related in tractate Semaḥot, where they brought the deceased out to the cemetery and buried him in their vaults, and he subsequently stood up on his feet and lived! And from what we have learnt in a Mishnah in the chapter Ha-tinokot: “A man or a woman having an issue, and a menstruating woman, and a woman who has just given birth, who died, convey ritual impurity by carrying them until such time as the flesh has been consumed,” and the Gemara stated: “What is the reason for this? Said Rav: ‘It is a special rabbinic decree, lest he faints and loses consciousness.’” It is implicit from their words that it is a most difficult task to distinguish between loss of consciousness and death, and that we cannot arrive at a definite conclusion until the flesh has decomposed; and if they had concerns over this in regard to issues of ritual impurity and purity, how much more so, then, would this be applicable when dealing with the question of saving life! Even though one could entertain some doubt on this point by virtue of the fact that the Gemara does not say: “We are concerned that he may have fainted,” but rather “It is a special decree, in case he may faint”—implying that there is a definitive sign of death, and our Sages of blessed memory merely decreed that ritual impurity will be created in such cases on account of those who are not medical experts—such a feeble and insubstantial piece of reasoning is insufficient to remove ourselves from the general category of obligatory concern for the possible saving of life.

Now their exalted Excellencies will see attached hereto the basic format of the request which, in my view, it is appropriate for them to make of the governor of the region; the likelihood is that he will be agreeable to this, and then everyone will be able to relax peacefully in his bed. If, however, he is not agreeable, there is no better solution than for them to act in the manner of our ancient forebears of blessed memory—to construct a vault inside the precincts of the synagogue for the purpose of carrying out the purification of the departed there in accordance with custom, and to stand guard over them for three days, after which time they are to be buried. And this, in my view, is an obligation devolving upon all the holy communities—not to deviate from the ways of the ancients of blessed memory, either to the right or to the left, for their ways are ways of pleasantness, and it is befitting for all the Sages of our generation to exhort them concerning this. Even if I knew that they will not heed my words, as the force of custom is powerful and strong, and that I might be regarded by them as a mere scoffer, I will have saved my own soul! With peaceful greetings.

The insignificant one, Moses of Dessau.