Why Did the Kohen Wrap Himself in Plastic During the Flight?

"Hello Rabbi, you've surely heard about the Orthodox Kohen who was photographed wrapped in a plastic bag during a flight when passing over a cemetery. Without being confrontational, I'd like to understand the logic behind this. I don't understand why impurity passes through the metal body of an airplane, but not through a simple plastic bag. Also, these are things that cannot be seen or understood, and if there's no logical explanation, it's understandable why this would lead to widespread ridicule in the media. Thank you."      

Greetings and blessings,

It's important to first note that the incident in question occurred under pressing circumstances and was not a regular practice. It happened right before Passover, when a Kohen who was abroad discovered, to his dismay, that his flight to Israel had been canceled, preventing him from joining his family before the holiday. It turned out that only one option remained: flying on another plane that would pass over the Holon cemetery... Due to the special importance of not being absent from his home during the holiday, the Kohen received special temporary permission to wrap himself in a plastic bag during the minute when the plane passed over the cemetery. This is not a simple halakhic solution, otherwise we would see Kohanim wrapped in plastic bags on every flight until the sight became routine.

This unusual case may seem strange and bizarre from the outside when one is unfamiliar with the reasons and explanations related to the matter. It's reasonable to assume that if the media had sought to cover this interesting topic objectively, they would have approached a rabbi knowledgeable in halakha to ask about this apparently strange behavior, and would have at least presented the halakhic reasons that motivated the Kohen to act this way. With Hashem's help, we will answer the question, beginning with the halakhic aspect. To clarify this halakhic issue, I approached the expert Rabbi Matityahu Halberstatt from the "Yissachar V'Ohalecha" kollel in Bnei Brak.

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(Leviticus 11:33): "Everything that is inside it shall become impure..."

Impurity is not "dirt" as the mind tends to imagine. Impurity comes from the word "opacity," a concept describing a deficiency and disconnection from a sublime spiritual source. In the human body resides the greatest holiness, a divine soul, which is in the nature of "a portion of God from above." When the supreme soul leaves the body, it leaves it empty and lacking in that supreme holiness that was in it. The absence of holiness turns it into a source of impurity. The greater the potential and holiness contained in a vessel, the more impure the body becomes when that holiness departs and is absent.

The Torah teaches us (Numbers 19:14): "When a person dies in a tent, anyone who enters the tent and anything in the tent shall be impure for seven days." Our sages taught us that impurity is stopped by a ceiling (in the Torah's language: a tent), otherwise the impurity would rise to the heart of the heavens. According to halakha, the impurity of the dead is like a column reaching to the heart of the heavens, as ruled by Maimonides in his "Mishneh Torah" (Book of Purity, Laws of Corpse Impurity, Chapter 7, Law 5). Thus, halakha teaches us that above a cemetery, impurity reaches up to the sky.

Now the question arises, why doesn't an airplane intervene and stop the impurity, while a plastic bag can do so? This investigation is done in three stages:

1) Although the airplane is as wide as a building, it does not resemble a tent since it is detached from the ground. Therefore, it does not prevent impurity from reaching the body sitting inside it. Impurity passes through the airplane just as it would in any open space. This is ruled by Maimonides there (Chapter 13, Law 5): "A flying bird, a flapping garment, and a ship floating on water, all these neither bring nor block [impurity], because even though they provide covering, they are not considered permanent tents."

2) Furthermore, the airplane itself is considered a vessel because it is a means of transportation, a means of flight and movement, and the Mishnah rules that vessels cannot block impurity (Ohalot, Chapter 6, Mishnah 1).

3) Additionally, the airplane is made of metal, and metal is a material that receives impurity, so even if we were to define an airplane as a tent, it still would not protect against impurity.

Plastic, on the other hand, is a material that does not receive impurity, since it is not mentioned in the Torah, and although it cannot serve as a tent as mentioned above, it can still serve as a sealed vessel that protects against impurity, similar to a submarine, where only what is inside remains dry (and this concept is called "tzamid patil," see Numbers 19:15, and Mishnayot Tractate Kelim Chapter 10). Therefore, the use of plastic protects the Kohen's body from impurity.

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Now, let's address the philosophical explanation, which seems far removed from rational understanding. For comparison, let's try to describe how a plastic bag can protect against viruses and diseases that affect those who are not immune to them. We can also imagine impurity as radioactive radiation, which can pass through heavy objects and even metals, while clothing made of light fabrics with high fiber density can filter out radiation in the short range.

Let's illustrate this first with an example of a group of people who, due to a genetic reason, are exposed to a virus prevalent in certain parts of the world. Therefore, when they travel, they need to walk in these areas wrapped in an airtight plastic bag, or in a strange airy suit like the one worn by nuclear scientists when exposed to radiation. While this may look very strange, the reason would be understandable to us. For a long period in Japan, men and women walked on the street and in their workplace wearing strange-looking face masks due to the spread of the flu virus.

If we had told people three hundred years ago about the existence of tiny germs that cannot be seen with the naked eye, yet can sicken an entire body and even kill people, everyone would have mocked us. Indeed, those who claimed the existence of germs received a fair share of ridicule from the masses, until the microscope was invented, at which point germs became a scientific fact. The issue of radiation is also not understood, but today it is a scientific fact that repeated exposure to invisible radiation can harm our bodies. Radiation is not an understandable concept. It can pass through objects and even through the metal structure of an airplane. Many astronauts died from diseases at a young age because in space there is no protective ozone layer that Hashem placed around Earth for us. The harmful radiation penetrated the astronauts' bodies over years during their stay in space, even though they appeared healthy during those years. Additionally, they were wrapped in thick, strong protective layers and inside a completely sealed spacecraft. Despite all this, the astronauts were exposed to invisible and intangible radiation, which can only be measured with very sensitive electronic instruments, and because of it, many of them did not live long and died from severe diseases before reaching an advanced age.

Today, science recognizes many intangible concepts that we cannot see or hear, which directly affect our lifestyle, health level, and even our life expectancy. In a physical field called "quantum mechanics," scientists claim that even the tiniest particles of matter can be influenced by human thought and research... and to some extent, our view and research shape and modify the material reality we live in, in a relationship that is still being researched and not understood by science.

Issues of purity and impurity are beyond our natural comprehension. Our sages have already said that this is a subject hidden from the eye and from regular intellectual reasoning, which is why these laws are called in the Torah's language "the statute of the Torah." It is further told that even King Solomon, the wisest of all men, grappled with these laws and could not understand them to their roots. These are subjects belonging to the hidden part of the Torah, well-known only to souls that have already left their bodies, about whom it is said, "For no man shall see Me and live." The holy Zohar explains that the soul sees in the next world what it did not see while dwelling in the physical body in this world. Maimonides compares this to trying to explain colors to a blind person, a task that is impossible by all accounts. Similarly, in the World to Come, the good and bad deeds we did in this world appear on us like clothing.

The Torah tells us about periods of very tangible reward and punishment, when anyone who gossiped about their fellow and engaged in slander would be afflicted with leprosy and forced to distance themselves from the people and purify their body. Today, of course, we do not see the spiritual changes we make in our souls, making it difficult for us to understand the impact of our actions. The Kabbalistic teachings of the Ari HaKadosh speak of these changes, called "garments" for the soul, which we ourselves create in this world through our positive and negative actions. When we leave our bodies, the vessel, the soul within will be revealed in all its spiritual beauty.

We have elaborated on this to illustrate the existence of a higher world, invisible to our eyes, which we often forget exists. Let us imagine for a moment that we could put on spiritual "X-ray glasses," through which we could see the upper worlds touching our physical world, and their power of influence on us. We would be able to discern souls and spiritual entities roaming the world, the upper worlds that were created, and the way they connect to our world. We would suddenly discover the existence of additional laws of creation that the Creator embedded in the universe, similar to the existence of fire, which has the power to warm and illuminate, and at the same time to harm. We would be able to see in every cemetery the "gate of heaven," through which the souls of the departed ascend and descend as in Jacob's ladder, and the airplane, in which the Kohen flies, entering that "beam of light" rising from the cemetery to the sky, and as the Kohen passes through it, his special soul unwillingly absorbs, from the rising and descending spirits, a kind of ink stain that does not come off the skin. Would it not then be understandable to us why the Kohen wrapped himself in plastic? Would it still be strange if we could see the influence of impurity and holiness with our very eyes?... We do not see the spiritual reality, and many of the laws concerning matters of holiness and purity seem strange and incomprehensible to us because of this, but, nevertheless, we can know of their existence through the holy Torah that teaches us about these laws. Laws pertaining to spiritual worlds hidden from the eye, all of which we will one day be able to see with our spiritual eyes, after we leave the physical body we now wear. As our sages taught us (Yoma 39a): "If a person defiles himself a little, they defile him much. From below, they defile him from above. In this world, they defile him for the World to Come. Our Rabbis taught: 'Sanctify yourselves and be holy' (Leviticus 11:44). If a person sanctifies himself a little, they sanctify him much. From below, they sanctify him from above. In this world, they sanctify him for the World to Come."

My thanks to Rabbi Zamir Cohen, who dedicated some of his precious time to this article, and to my study partner Rabbi Moshe Zvi Einhorn who greatly assisted me in improving it.

Sincerely, Daniel Blass