Grave Worship

Introduction of Grave Worship to the Jewish People

It was the Arizal and his students who introduced grave worship to the Jewish people under the name of “holy places.” This worship changed the face of history. Within a few hundred years, many Jewish communities all over the diaspora adopted the idea – and when the State of Israel was founded, the worship – especially of the “new grave” of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.

Before we prove that this worship contradicts Mosheh Rabbenu’s Torah, let us note that the graves of the tannaim and amoraim are lost to us for 1,500 years (and all the more so the graves of the prophets, and all the more so the graves of the patriarchs). This is a fact, as there is no tradition transmitted to us regarding the place of their burial. Furthermore, we have not even kept the identity of graves that are much less ancient than them.

Therefore, today we have no idea where Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and the great Torah scholars of the Sages’ time have been buried, and certainly not those of the prophets’ time. This is the first reason that we have nothing to do with graves today!

In previous generations, the location of the Sages’ graves were unknown. So when and why did they suddenly show up, and when and why did the custom appear to bow prostrate upon them? The source for this is in the Arizal’s book Sha’ar HaGilgulim, Introduction, 37:

And now I will write the place of the graves of the righteous, just as I received from my teacher of blessed memory. I have already informed you that he would see and look at the souls of the righteous, everywhere and at every time, and all the more so while he was at their graves, for their souls stand there, as is well-known. And his eyes would also see from afar the soul of the righteous person standing on his grave, and thus he would know the grave of each and every righteous person. And he would speak with them, and learn some secrets of the Torah from them. And I have already tested some tests and examined with the utmost examinations, and I have found his words to be correct and true. But I can’t speak at length about this now, since these are awesome and amazing things that a book could not contain.

After all the proofs that we have brought above on the malice of the Arizal’s teachings, it is self-understood that all these things here are also mere lies and deceit. We see once again an attempt to mislead our miserable nation, whose main goal is to absorb holiness and distance itself from impurity!

Another proof is in Rabbi Chayyim Vital’s book Sefer HaChezyonot:

On the eve of rosh chodesh Elul 5331, my teacher of blessed memory sent me to the tomb of Abbaye and Rava, of blessed memory, and I first performed the unification of the mouth and nose of attika kaddisha, and I was overcome by sleep, and I woke up and didn’t see anything. Then I again prostrated myself on Abbaye himself, and I performed the unification handwritten by my teacher himself, peace be upon him … and then there was a voice bursting from my mouth and tongue, saying, “Wisdom, wisdom!” more than twenty times. Then it said again, “Wisdom and science!” a few more times. Then it said again, “Wisdom and science have been given to you from heaven in the knowledge of Rabbi Akiva!” Then it said again, “More than Rabbi Akiva!” And then it said again, “And like Rav Yiva Sava!” And then it said again, “More than Rav Yiva Sava!” And then it said again, “Peace be upon you!” And then it said again, “Heaven sends its greetings to you!” All this in such great speed, an amazing thing, many times while awake, while I was fallen upon my face prostrating myself in Abbaye’s tomb.

Thus we see explicitly how the Arizal’s teachings invent righteous people’s graves, and teach to visit them and to literally prostrate oneself upon them, like Rabbi Chayyim Vital, who lied on his belly with his arms and legs outstretched in Abbaye’s tomb.

We have already proven above that the Arizal’s words were written by his students, and not through dialectic discussion but by establishing sayings, stories and legends. And this is a further proof.

This is an ingenious idea of our enemies and those who hate us to send the Jewish people to cemeteries to trap all of them in impurity, to distance them from holiness forever!

Yes, for graves have no holiness, but on the contrary, they are the place of impurity, the strongest impurity in the world, tumat met. Impurity caused by a corpse is the avi avot hatumah, the “father of fathers of impurity,” the strongest level of impurity in the world. And so Rashi on BaMidbar 19:22: “we learn that the corpse is avi avot hatumah.” The single thing that can purify the impurity of a corpse is the ashes of the red heifer. The name avi avot hatumah, “father of fathers of impurity,” means in fact to teach that the corpse is capable of growing impurity to such a level that a person who becomes impure from the corpse becomes an av hatumah, a “father of impurity,” such that that person’s impurity is considered the “son” of the “grandfather of impurity” and the father of the vlad hatumah, “son of impurity,” if someone else touches the father, the impurity being considered the “son” of the impurity that the “father of impurity” begot, and a “grandson” of the first impurity which is considered a “grandfather of impurity.”

The Torah teaches that the body has value so long as it is a vessel for the use of the soul. Once the soul can no longer use it, it is merely impure material that must be thrown to the place of impurity. And although some hold that there is no tumat met in the graves of the righteous, this is not agreed upon; and some claim that all corpses cause impurity, including those of the righteous. For example: Bava Batra 58a, Berachot 28b, Sanhedrin 39a.

In the Gemara Bava Batra 58a, it is explained that Rabbi Bena’ah would mark the graves of the righteous, and even the grave of the patriarchs in the Me’arat HaMachpelah. The Rashbam comments there: “He would make a gravestone of cement in order to mark the place of impurity.”

In the Gemara Bava Metzia 85b, it is said that Reish Lakish would mark the graves of the rabbis. And Rashi comments there: “So that the kohanim not stumble.” Thus the kohanim were careful not to become impure and prohibited from doing so even in the graves of the righteous.

In the Gemara Berachot 28b, it is brought that when Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai was about to die, he told his students to remove the vessels so that they not become impure. Thus it is evident that even a righteous person transmits impurity when he dies. This cannot be attributed to Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai’s humility, since he was teaching a halachah to his students.

The great acharonim have already discussed this issue practically. In the Pitchei Teshuvah 372:2, he brings from the Responsa Battei Kehunah who prohibits it, and similarly the Responsa Tuv Ta’am VaDa’at 3:231 writes at length to forbid kohanim from entering the tent over the holy gravestone of the Maharam of Chernobyl. The Shinover Rav also forbids it fiercely in a responsum that is published in the end of Divrei Yechezkel on the Torah, section 1. See further what the Peat HaShulchan writes to forbid it in the Laws of the Land of Israel 2:18. And see Sedeh Chemed volume 9 (page 56), who writes at great length that there is no basis to permit kohanim to prostrate themselves on the graves of the righteous.

And indeed the Sages said in the Zohar, Parashat Terumah 2:151a that there is no righteous person in the world who does not suffer the judgment of the grave:

For there is no righteous person in the world who does not suffer the judgment of the grave. For that angel who is appointed over graves stands over the body and judges it each and every day. If this is the case for the righteous, how much more so for the wicked!

The Torah commands us in innumerable places to be holy. As in the book of VaYikra 19:2: “Speak to the entire congregation of the Children of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I, HaShem your God, am holy.” The Torah sanctifies life and defiles the dead; it distances graves and defiles them. The face of the living God would be seen in the Temple; the Temple is the place of life. One who touches a corpse is distanced from it. There is no death in the place of life. The living God is seen solely in the place of life. The kohanim, who are sanctified to see the face of the living God, are commanded to distance themselves from the dead and graves.

A grave is the antithesis of holiness; a grave is the antithesis of a holy place; a grave has no holiness because the source of impurity is there!

At the time of the Temple, every Jew distanced himself as far as possible from the dead and from a grave, because one who touched them was distanced for seven days and kept away from the holy things. This is unlike the gentiles, who sanctify death and the dead, and make them a place of idol worship. And therefore, Ya’akov Avinu didn’t want to be buried in Egypt, because he knew that the gentiles sanctify graves, and he didn’t want his grave to become a place of idol worship, as stated in the Midrash Rabbah, VaYechi 96:5:

Why did Ya’akov Avinu request not to be buried in Egypt? So that he would not be made into an idol, because just as the worshiper is punished, so is the worshiped.

During the time that the Temple stood, all the Jewish people kept the laws of purity and impurity. No one would go to the graves if not for a very great need. For one who went to a grave was banned from the place of the Temple for a whole week, and he would need the sparsely-available ashes of the red heifer. Not only was he banned from the place of the Temple, but he would not even be able to eat his food in purity.

It follows that the custom to go to graves is not a part of Mosheh Rabbenu’s Torah and not our heritage, but developed after the destruction of the Second Temple, when the Jews stopped keeping the laws of purity and impurity.

And if you object that the Talmud Bavli, Tractate Sotah 34b says:

“And they went up the Negev and he came to Chevron” (BaMidbar 13:22) – it should have said “and they came”! Rava said: This teaches that Kalev separated from the plot of the spies and went and prostrated himself at the graves of the forefathers. He said to them: “My fathers, beg for mercy for me that I may be saved from the plot of the spies.”

This is no difficulty, as he lived after the destruction of the Temple and after the Jews were no longer pure. Apparently already then the custom of praying at graves had begun to take root, and therefore Rava expounded in the way he did.

The second reason why we shouldn’t visit graves today is that it isn’t appropriate to beg and request something in a place of impurity and the encampment of the Angel of Death and his domain, for there is no shechinah there, and HaShem will not hear anything.

All the more so is it inappropriate to beg and request something from the dead themselves, although they were righteous in their lifetime, but only from HaShem alone, for He is the source of life from Whom redemption comes!

Who do we have who is greater than Mosheh Rabbenu? Yet nevertheless the Torah says in Devarim 34:6: “And He buried him in the valley in the Land of Moav opposite the house of Peor, and no man knows his burial place to this very day.” Why were we not permitted to know the place of his burial? So that we not go to him to ask for our wishes, but turn directly to HaKadosh Baruch Hu.

Look around, and you will see a distorted Judaism. There is some mysterious charm in death, but unreal and certainly not Jewish. If someone dies, then his words immediately become doubly strong. Why? Because he died? People honor their parents in death more than they honored them in life. Dead rabbis perform much greater wonders and miracles than living ones! When a person is alive, it’s possible to degrade and insult him, but as soon as he dies, he is surrounded by a mysterious aura of “holiness,” and whoever says something bad about him is perceived by people as desecrating something holy.

Don’t let our enemies and those who hate us win! Stop the grave worship in the Jewish people!