JERUSALEM - Rabbi Eliezar Einhorn, an expert in Torah law, sat down to explain the importance of preserving a Jewish burial ground according to Jewish law. The Torah scholar was addressing the proposed development of a conference center on the Shnipishok Jewish cemetery in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Rabbi Einhorn clarified, "The place of a cemetery is a holy place, where the holy bodies and the neshomas (souls) all lie in peace. To come and disturb the process of God is the greatest upfront; and God forbid, there shouldn't be a heavenly retribution against those people who participate in such an act.
The rabbi went on to explain how the process works on a spiritual level. "And it says [in the Torah] when there's some sort of remnant of a grave, parts of the neshoma (soul) that have already gone up to heaven, come down and hover over the place of burial. I wouldn't want to be, it sounds a little spooky to me just thinking about it, that the souls of so many thousands of righteous people, should come and descend on a place that has been desecrated."
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