Baruch Hashem such errors are extremely rare, but the agmas nefesh caused to the mourning family in this case was significant as the Sephardic Chevra Kadisha was supposed to bury Tel Aviv resident Shifra Dafna, 80 in Yerushalayim. A woman was buried but not the nifteres in question.
According to Betty Lahat quoted by Ynet, her aunt was to have been buried in Yerushalayim and they attended a levaya which they later learned was someone else.
Apparently the family of the woman who was buried came to identify her body, and they saw Mrs. Dafna, who the chevra thought was already buried, quickly realizing they mixed up the bodies.
The body was exhumed and another levaya was conducted. The family reread the hespeidim and recited kaddish, this time at the proper levaya.
Ynet quotes Yossi Gil, the assistant director of the Sephardic Chevra Kadisha apologizing for the rare and most unfortunate error. He blamed the error on the brother of the nifteres however, explaining he made the identification, which was later learned to be incorrect. He added that the actual identification was recorded on video so he can verify his claim that the fault is that of the brother, not the chevra kadisha.
“We’re not shaking off our responsibility, and we will examine the unfortunate turn of events. We didn’t want to cause any harm and we’re full of remorse for the mistake,” Gil added.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
The headline contradicts the article; as anyone who actually reads the article can see, the Chevra Kadisha did not blunder, the Dafna family did. It’s a chutzpah that it was they who complained to the media. If the other family had done so I’d have understood, since they and their deceased relative suffered harm, and through no fault of their own. But the Dafna family suffered no harm, and caused harm to others, so what have they got to complain about? And why are they blaming the Chevra Kadisha, who did everything correctly?