More Incorruptible Moroccan Kabbalists

Yeranen Yaakov takes note of a story from Arutz Sheva: Another Moroccan Kabbalist's Body Reburied Whole.

The body of Rabbi Reuven Ajeyani, Rosh Yeshiva of the Etz Chaim Yeshiva in Sefrou, Morocco was interred Wednesday in the Jerusalem Har Hamenuchot cemetery, 70 years after the rabbi passed on.

Rabbi Ajeyani was famous for his vast knowledge of Talmud and Kabbalah, and was known for his blessings that brought about Divine salvation for countless followers.

The body of Rabbi Ajeyani was found miraculously intact, without signs of decomposition, demonstrating his true virtue.

And he links it to an earlier story "about Moroccan Kabbalist brothers Ribbi Avraham Tangi and Ribbi Shelomo Tangi, where the same occurred".

I would link it to another phenomenon, which purportedly occurs to various Catholic saints: incorruptibility.

Incorruptibility is a Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox believe that supernatural (or Godly) intervention allows some human bodies (specifically saints) to avoid the normal process of decomposition after death as a sign of their holiness. Bodies that reportedly undergo little or no decomposition, or delayed decomposition, are sometimes referred to as incorrupt or incorruptable.

The Wikipedia page has multiple pages of saints to which this has happened. And see this web site all about the phenomenon:

What is most astounding of all is the fact that for each incorrupt body discovered, after research has been done to determine who the person was, it has always been determined that the person was an extremely devout Catholic. This inevitably leads to the question, How can the process of decay, which has no intelligence, choose which bodies to devour and not to devour, and why do they happen to be devout Catholics? (For claims of incorrupt Orthodox Christians, we could not find proof for them during our research. Please see our page on the subject here.) There is no other way to describe this phenomena than to state that it is supernatural rather than natural, and that it is simply miraculous.

One explanation why this only seems to occur to devout Catholics is that it is Catholics specifically who believe in and venerate saints, and that this is a trait specific to many saints.

Now, there are ways of accounting for incorruptibility aside from supernatural cause. There is the possibility of fraud, such as the embalming of the body or of people simply lying; and there is the possibility of natural causes:

Physical causes include conditions such that decomposition is significantly slowed down. There are a number of ways of retarding decomposition, but the mechanism commonly stated is that of saponification.^[3] Another environmental condition that can be the cause of retarding decomposition is a burial ground that is cool and dry. The retardation of decomposition also occurs if the ground is composed of soil that is high in certain compounds that bring the bodies' moisture to the surface of the skin. It is also suggested that bodies with low amounts of muscle and body fat tend to resist decomposition better.^{[citation needed]}

Alternatively, bodies may simply have been embalmed, which greatly decreases the rate at which they decompose.^[3]

Surely Orthodox Jews don't believe that this is really a supernatural occurrence happening to devout Catholics. And so, whatever explanation they would offer for the Catholics might readily be transferred to many or all of the cases involving Jewish saints kabbalists / tzaddikim.

How did this belief enter Judaism. Did it develop internally, or was it borrowed from the Catholics? Or did the Catholics get it from us?

There is a Talmudic basis for this belief. First, in Bava Metzia 84b:

On his death-bed he said to his wife, 'I know that the Rabbis are angry with me, and will not properly attend to me. Let me lie in an upper chamber,¹²  and do you not be afraid of me.' R. Samuel b. Nahmani said: R. Jonathan's mother told me that she was informed by the wife of R. Eleazar son of R. Simeon: 'I kept him lying in that upper chamber not less than eighteen nor more than twenty-two years. Whenever I ascended there, I examined his hair, and [even] if a single hair had fallen out, the blood would well forth. One day, I saw a worm issue from his ear, whereat I was much grieved, but he appeared to me in my dream and told me that it was nothing. ["This has happened," said he,] "because I once heard a scholar insulted and did not protest, as I should have done." 

Perhaps Rabbi Eleazar beRabbi Shimon is different, for we see from a different story that (after he worried about a possible misdeed and complained that he was rotting) they performed an experiment and discovered that his extracted fat did not rot and develop worms. (See indeed Chiddushei Aggadat of Maharsha, who makes this connection.) But we might not extrapolate from this to the general case of tzaddikim, that they do not rot.

The other Talmudic basis comes from a story about a different Tanna, Rabbi Achai bar Yoshia, in Shabbat 152b:

R. Mari said: [Even] the righteous are fated to be dust, for it is written, 'and the dust return to the earth as it was'. Certain diggers were digging in R. Nahman's ground, [when] R. Ahai b. Josiah¹¹  snorted at them. So they went and told R. Nahman, 'A man snorted at us.' He went and asked him, 'Who are you?' 'I am Ahai b. Josiah.' 'But did not R. Mari say. [Even] the righteous are fated to be dust?' said he. 'But who is Mari,' he retorted 'I do not know him.' Yet surely a verse is written, 'and the dust returns to the earth as it was'? he urged. 'He who taught you Ecclesiastes did not teach you Proverbs,' he answered, 'for it is written, But envy is the rottenness of the bones:¹²  he who has envy in his heart, his bones rot away. [but] he who has no envy in his heart, his bones do not rot away.' He then felt him and perceived that there was substance in him. 'Let my master arise [and come] to my house,' he invited him. 'You have thus disclosed that you have not even studied the prophets, for it is written, And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves,'¹³  said he to him, 'But it is written, for dust art thou, and unto dust thou shalt return?'¹⁴  'That means one hour before the resurrection of the dead', replied he.

This would be a rejection of the thesis (of the Amora, Rav Mari) that even the bodies of tzaddikim decompose. However, note that they are discussing the rotting away of the bones, rather than the rotting away of the flesh. And the prooftext from Mishlei speaks about the bones, not the flesh. Though דאית ביה מששא, "that there was substance in him", might well refer to R' Achai bar Yoshia having flesh as well.

Still, we cannot necessarily extrapolate to the preservation of the entire body, including flesh.

The conflation of flesh not decomposing with the bones being intact is apparently something that has occurred in the past. Thus, as S. wrote in a comment in both Yeranen Yaakov posts about the Chida and the Gra:

In all likelihood their skeletons were intact. In at least two other cases of reinterment, the Gra and the Chida's skeletons were said to be intact by those who dealt with the bodies, and we have their words from the time or the reinterment, but in retellings it got expanded to intact bodies, hair, etc.

So, what is my reaction to hearing this recent miracle story?

1) It would be neat if it indeed happened.

2) Still, "pics or it didn't happen." I don't just believe every single claim put forth without evidence. There are people out there who accidentally distort aspects of stories. And even some (including some Jews) who deliberately distort or make up miracle stories in order to inspire others. Given that the people in question were kabbalists, such as this latest one, who "was famous for his vast knowledge of Talmud and Kabbalah, and was known for his blessings that brought about Divine salvation for countless followers", it would be a great disgrace if someone said that his body was not intact. And given the expectation in the past, based on other Moroccan kabbalists, it is a pretty safe bet that someone would ask. Certain people would then conclude that he (like the Gra and the Chida) as not the great kabbalist and tzaddik he was renowned to be. That would be a tremendous bizayon. Such pressure could influence someone shading the truth, or even getting embalmed. (A sort of a reverse of the Or HaChaim regarding Yaakov Avinu getting embalmed.)

3) Even with pics, it would be nice (though obviously not practical, or kavod hameis) to test for signs of embalming or saponification.

There is a famous Or HaChaim which explains why Yosef had his father Yaakov embalmed.

"And the physicians embalmed him -- Yosef did this because of his father's honor, for such was the rule of the honored ones, and all the more so the greats of the nobility. Or else, in order that they should not err regarding him, when they did not embalm him, [to think] that he did not die, or that he died and did not rot, and make him into a deity. For such is a wonder in the polluted nations, and this would result in them not allowing him to ascend to the land of his burial. And if not for one of the aforementioned reasons, the matter is simple that {even} without embalming, he would not have rotted, And go and learn from the incident of Rabbi Eliezer beRabbi Shimon ben Yochai, as is stated in Shas."

The Ohr HaChaim was also a Moroccan kabbalist, who passed away in 1743.