Two Kiryat Malachi residents were niftar over Shabbos, Noach Haditchov and Masud Malka Z”L. It appears the bodies were switched somehow in handling prior to kvura.
A son of the niftar, David Malka, told Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) that if the levaya was not as long as it was they likely would have buried the wrong person. David explains the levaya began at the shul his father davened. They tried doing a tahara in the beis hachaim where the identity of the niftar was checked. David saw the face and said it was his father, reporting the niftar was very similar to his father.
The tahara was completed and Rabbi Chaim Pinto proceeded with the levaya, David explained, adding at that time a close friend looked at the niftar and confirmed once again it was that of his old friend.
For reasons that are not being explained, a member of the chevra decided not to take the word of the son and close friend, checking again, determining the niftar was not David’s father.
A spokesman for the chevra kadisha told Galei Tzahal they are trying to determine how the mix up occurred and the appropriate lessons will be learned from the error.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
If the son and the best friend thought it was the right person, why is it so hard to understand how there was a mixup?
Good enough for government work.
In most countries, and throughout Jewish history, the hevra kadisha relied on volunteers. When a government provides a service, meaning the actual service providers are civil servants rather people responsible to the community they serve, the quality of services deteriorates.
Note how in Eretz Yisrael over the last 60 years, the government spent much money on “official” synagogues, yet the biggest growth has been among non-government synagogues (but hareidi and others) rather than those that are state-sponsored.
Now how do they know that the first two people made a mistake? Maybe they were right, and the “discovery” was in error?