Priests must not shave their heads or shave off the edges of their beards or cut their bodies. – Leviticus 21:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 5, 2015): Leviticus 21

In Tana Toraja, a regency eastern Indonesia, a funeral is a boisterous affair that involves everyone in the village. Of course, that also means that a funeral is very expensive. Death must be saved for – money must be accumulated so that a person can die. So, what happens when a person dies before the family can afford a funeral? According to cultural anthropologist Kelli Swazey, that simply is not allowed to happen. Death can only occur once the family can afford the funeral, the monetary obligation simply must be met. So, if a member of the family stops breathing, they are placed in a special room within the house. They labeled as sick or asleep. They are symbolically fed. Sometimes they are taken out on family excursions. The loved one may have died physically, but culturally they are very much alive – until the time of the funeral.

Funeral traditions are strange in almost any cultural. We light candles for the dead, although I am not sure that anyone really knows what the candle is supposed to mean. Over the past few years it has amazed me how many people who profess to be atheists change their tune the moment someone they love dies. Oh, they still do not believe in God or any kind of a higher power, but they also seem to know that the one that they loved is in a “better place.” Within Christianity there is this persistent belief that our loved ones are “looking down on our lives from heaven” even though there is precious little evidence that this could be true. And I really hate to have to contradict “It’s a Wonderful Life,” but when we die we don’t become angels of any class, and a ringing bell has nothing to do with an angel getting its wings. (I know, some of you are crushed and simply want to shut down your computer at this point.)

So, why do we bother with these often meaningless death rituals. I think the answer is really rather simple – it makes us feel better (although I have to admit that having a leering ancestor who died a while ago scrutinizing every moment of my life brings me very little comfort.) And in some ways, we aren’t really all that different from the inhabitants of Tana Toraja – our loved ones aren’t really gone – they are just living in a different room in the house.

We need to be reminded that these instructions in Leviticus to the priests are with regard to death and mourning and funeral preparations within the community. Essentially Moses is just reminding his priests that Israel stands as nation that has been set apart by God. Other cultures might mourn the dead by shaving their heads or cutting themselves, but they were not other cultures. They were a nation who professed a deep dependence on their God. And there probably is not a moment when what we believe is put to the test more than that moment when we are forced to confront death. The priest was to lean on the understanding that the God that they honored in life needed to be honored at the moment of death as well. There would seem to be really no formal belief in an afterlife in Jewish thought at this point in history - that would come later. But there was a strong belief that the God who was in control in life – was also in control at the time of death. And the priests were to set the example for all the people. God could be trusted – even in the moment when life ceased to be.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 22