Good morning. I am unable to open the link on my work computer, but was troubled by something in the daf today. I am newly re-engaged in learning after 15 years so please excuse the lack of appropriate use of terms. The gemorah today says that a cohen can walk in an an beis kever that has been plowed over because we assume bone fragments have been removed... or if it is a major thoroughfare bone fragments have been crushed to dust, which only makes an area tameh d'rabbonom. I imagine this gemorrah may have been cited in determining the status of Ground Zero. However, i am wondering what the status of tumah is for Auschwitz or other concentration camps... cremation was widespread, and since the end of the war many of these sites have been turned into museums with thousands of people walking their grounds... is Auschwitz only tameh d'rabbanam ie can a cohen go there? There is a pit next to crematorium II that designates the area where ashes were burried. Does all of Auschwitz have a status of tameh or only the area we can be certain there are ashes? I wonder if the status of Ground Zero is also different because it is a place of business, a thoroughfare that people need to go to conduct business, whereas Auschwitz is a place you do not go on your ordinary way, but must intentionally go for the exclusive purpose of visiting...
*Please note I am not comparing Ground Zero to Auschwitz, what happened there, or why. I mean no offense in that regard. I only wish to understand how the gemorah would treat these two places.
Good morning. I am unable to open the link on my work computer, but was troubled by something in the daf today. I am newly re-engaged in learning after 15 years so please excuse the lack of appropriate use of terms. The gemorah today says that a cohen can walk in an an beis kever that has been plowed over because we assume bone fragments have been removed... or if it is a major thoroughfare bone fragments have been crushed to dust, which only makes an area tameh d'rabbonom. I imagine this gemorrah may have been cited in determining the status of Ground Zero. However, i am wondering what the status of tumah is for Auschwitz or other concentration camps... cremation was widespread, and since the end of the war many of these sites have been turned into museums with thousands of people walking their grounds... is Auschwitz only tameh d'rabbanam ie can a cohen go there? There is a pit next to crematorium II that designates the area where ashes were burried. Does all of Auschwitz have a status of tameh or only the area we can be certain there are ashes? I wonder if the status of Ground Zero is also different because it is a place of business, a thoroughfare that people need to go to conduct business, whereas Auschwitz is a place you do not go on your ordinary way, but must intentionally go for the exclusive purpose of visiting...
ReplyDelete*Please note I am not comparing Ground Zero to Auschwitz, what happened there, or why. I mean no offense in that regard. I only wish to understand how the gemorah would treat these two places.
Thank you
Or perhaps I misunderstood and ashes present no tumah whatsoever...
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