If your body is just a kli that holds your neshama, then when the neshama leaves, why is it so crucial to give so much respect for the kli that is now just ordinary because it is empty from spirit?
-Daniella Ginsberg
Guest Response from Rabbi Norman Lamm:
The halakhic view is that whatever comes in contact with kedusha and then ceases its contact, loses its original degree of holiness but does retain some element of holiness because of this original association.
Example: “sefer torah she-balah” (a sefer torah that became worn and unusable) must be treated with respect even though it is no longer at the peak of kedusha. Similarly a shul or tefillin, etc. Therefore the same mechanism applies to human beings: when alive, a person attains a certain degree of kedushah thanks to the neshama that is intimately tied up with his body. The body, after death, retains halakhic “protection” which demands that we not offend it, even though the neshama has left it.
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