The reburial on Har HaZeisim
After the erudite Rav of a beis knesses was accidentally buried in a tiered grave during the height of the Covid attack around Pesach — essentially a stone cubicle in a burial wall — his remains were transferred this week to Har Hazeisim by volunteers.
When his remains were removed from the vault after they were laid there conditionally, his family painfully learned that the body of their esteemed relative had not even been covered over by earth but just by gravel, which is not real burial. The family had been told that the body was covered with bags supposedly filled with earth that are said to deteriorate with time and then cover the body with earth. In fact the bags had gravel which is not considered earth in halochoh.
The family had asked the Chevra Kadisha to ensure that the neighboring graves be sold only to shomrei Torah and mitzvos, but they were told that no assurances could be given since it is against the law to discriminate. The family was also told that in the lowest level of the grave wall, the body rests directly on earth, but this turned out to be untrue.
It is clear to see that this bag holds gravel and not earth
The deceased Rav had worked hard for many years during his lifetime to preserve the cemeteries in Morocco, which he visited using his French passport. As far back as forty years ago, when Israel did not have any diplomatic relations with Arab countries, he succeeded in transferring his father's remains to a burial plot on Har Hazeisim.
When the family learned that it could not even halachically sit shiva for the deceased because his burial was not valid, they had the remains of this esteemed personage reinterpret to a regular grave on Har Hazeisim where, miraculously, an empty plot was found next to the grave of his father, whose remains he personally had toiled to bring to Eretz Yisroel. The cycle was closed.
