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Correspondence

Oct. 9, 1961

Letter from Dr. Weiss to Abraham Jhirad about the Halachic Permissibility of Using an Old Cemetery for New Graves (1961)

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Correspondence

Exchange with Abraham Jhirad about Request for Sefarim and Reopening Old Burial Ground (1961)

Dear Rabbi, Thank you very much for yours of April 30th, 1961 and the snapshot enclosed therewith. It may sound insincere if I am to mention once again that we are all more than grateful for the interest shown by the UOJCA and particularly to you for reporting favourably on our behalf, even though we are full of faults and lack the true spirit of cooperation. Yet one thing is certain, and that is we all have a great yearning to know more of our religion and to be as good and Torah-true Jews as our counterparts elsewhere, if not better.It was kind of you to suggest that we could select two students in the place of Shelim and Jonathan. Before we make the selection, we shall, however, try and persuade Shelim and Jonathan to accept the scholarships by informing them of the proposed enhanced salary to be paid on being ordained as Rabbi and on completion of the Hazanut Course respectively. I have been in touch with the young man who is offered the New York Yeshiva scholarship. I shall get him to apply for required forms forthwith. I suppose it will be better if I forward these to the University with a covering letter.With regards to our requirements of books, etc., I wonder if Dr. Weiss could be requested to forward immediately 20 copies each of Chumash and the Code of Jewish Law in English for the benefit of those congregations which need it most and are not in possession of the same. I may mention here for your information that the United Synagogue of India has received a number of copies on Kashruth Laws for free distribution. Our desire, on the contrary, is to secure from you detailed instructions on Kashruth Laws and have these translated in Marathi and published in one of the issues of *Mebasser*. Incidentally, I must remember to submit our request to Dr. Weiss for further funds for the continuation of the publication of *Mebasser*. As you are aware, Mr. Isaiah helped us in typing and taking extracts from different writings for our paper. This saved us the expendit…
Death & Mourning India

Correspondence

Letter to Abraham Jhirad about Reusing an Old Cemetery (1961)

Dear Abraham: With regard to the question about the old cemetery which had been leveled and which the Bene Israel had proposed to use again, I must have the following information in order to answer the question properly. 1) Do you have a set depth for the digging of the graves, or does the depth vary in individual cases? 2) What is normally the height of the coffin? Please answer these questions as soon as possible, and I shall try to answer your question after I have had a chance to study your response.Sincerely,Rabbi Norman Lamm
Practical Halacha India

Correspondence

Letter to Baruch Gelernter about the Halachic Permissibility of Reinterment (1968)

Dear Mr. Gelernter: I enclose the material you requested. I attended to it as soon as I received your letter, despite an indisposition which kept me confined to my house. I hope the enclosed proves helpful. Sincerely, Rabbi Norman Lamm P.S. For purposes of identification to the Court you may mention that I am the Rabbi of The Jewish Center, assoc. prof. Jewish philosophy at Yeshiva University, author of articles on Jewish Law that have been quoted in U.S. Supreme Court decisions, and member of the Jewish Law Commission of the Rabbinical Council of America.To Whom It May Concern: I do hereby certify that it is forbidden, according to Jewish law, to disinter the remains of a person in order to rebury him in another cemetery. Whereas Jewish law does make specific exceptions, these conditions are hot satisfied in the case of the deceased Robert I. Gold, whose disinterment is being rweaquested by his survivors. The removal of a body to a “family plot" is permitted only after such an agea has been so designated not by an oral declaration or even contractually, but only by the actual burial therein of a close relative. In the present case, there is no member of the Gold family interred in this new area, and hence Jewish law does not consider a “family plot" such that removal from another grave for reinterment here is permitted.Sources for this decision are:1.R.Ezekiel Landau, “Responsa Noda Bi'tyehudah", Vol.I, Sec. YeDes 89.2. R.Eliezer Deutsch,"Duda'ei Hasadeh", No.6.3. 8.Hayyim Fischel Epstien, "Teshuvah Shelemah", Vol.II,Sec.Y.D.,16.4. R.Jekuthiel Judah Greenwald, "Kol Bo al Avelut" Chap.III, No.6, esp. PPe 234-237,Signed: Rabbi Norman Lamm
Practical Halacha Death & Mourning