Halakhah su Giudici 12:78

Rabbi Waldenberg draws a sharp distinction between the status of an aborted fetus and that of removed organs. The preponderance of halakhic opinion is that burial of a fetus is halakhically mandated as a matter of law. In his analysis of this subject, Rabbi Cohen seizes upon this point and contends that the status of removed organs is identical with that of a fetus. The halakhic obligation to bury a fetus is derived by inference from the stipulation that a kohen may not defile himself in order to bury his own fetal progeny. From this it is deduced that although a kohen may not defile himself, interment of the fetus is obligatory (Magen Avraham, Oraḥ Hayyim, 526:2). This obligation with regard to the fetus is deemed to be included in the obligation to bury the dead and is not regarded as a precautionary stipulation designed to prevent kohanim from inadvertently defiling themselves through contact with the fetus. This line of reasoning parallels that of Yad ha-Melekh with regard to separated organs. Thus, Rabbi Cohen argues, the halakhah forbidding a kohen to defile himself through contact with organs removed from close relatives should be viewed as establishing an obligation with regard to the interment of organs removed from living persons. Furthermore, contends Rabbi Cohen, those authorities who view burial of organs separated from a living person as a mere custom similarly maintain that burial of individual organs separated from a corpse is a custom, not an obligation. In terms of definitive Halakhah this latter opinion is rejected and the accepted view deems it obligatory to bury individual organs of the deceased. Therefore, Rabbi Cohen concludes that, with regard to burial, there is no distinction between organs separated from a corpse and those separated from a living person.¹⁸Of interest with regard to this discussion is Bereshit Rabbah LX,3, which reports that Jephthah was punished for his arrogance and was afflicted with a debilitating disease which caused his limbs to fall off. This occurred over a period of time during which Jephthah journeyed through many cities. Each limb, the Midrash indicates, was interred in the city in which it became separated from his body. Judges 12:7 reads, “… and Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in the cities of Gilead.” Since his limbs were buried in different locales, Jephthah is spoken of as having been buried in the cities of Gilead.