I personally don't know the exact halacha, but since I have been to many funerals where Chabad Rebetzin's (wives of the Rabbi) were present, I am sure this is not "Halacha", but rather "Superstition" and "Primitive thinking". If Rabbi Amar perhaps were to give thought to "Derech Eretz kadma la Torah", he would have behaved in a more humane manner, but with behaviour like that he is tru;ly no different from the very people whom we are at war with.

In Jesus's day there were the professional wailers and weepers in Israel. Many were women. It was perhaps part of traditional services.

dear Rabbi, please LISTEN DONT BE STUBBORN , being the Chief Rabbi of Migdal Ha ' Emek, please respond to these complaints ! Waht is the point when we in October of 1991honored you with the Tolerance Prize at a special ceremony in the Israeli Parliament. You surley cant deny revceiving the honor in the presence of prominent Government officials, do you rememebr the prize was presented by the Chairman of the Knesset, Mr. Dov Shilansky. ? Now rabbi Listen, your great accomplishments for the benefit of Israeli society, especially the underprivileged segment, were highly praised and celebrated even to date. Please attend to this enquiry ! Ynet please forward :-)~ ben singapore

PEOPLE LIKE U R WHAT'S PREVENTING MOSHIACH FROM COMING. REMEMBER AHAVAT YISRAEL. THIS IS THE #1 THING I AM SEEING IN THESE ANGRY - AND POORLY INFORMED - POSTS: HATRED OF THE RELIGIOUS. AND NOW THRU UR POST I AM SEEING HATRED OF THE ASHKENAZIM.AS WELL. HOW SAD.

tell someone how to mourn? And by the way, there are few mortuaries here in Israel. We don't go to a mortuary and then drive in limos to the cemetery. We meet at the cemetery where the body is taken out, wrapped in a shroud, prayers AND eulogies (by men and women if the rabbi is not a primitive, pathetic person) are said. This rabbi is a lousy excuse for a rabbi.

this "Messiah"be riding on a white horse. Will he be bearing a message from "God" Will he make the rains come down. Perhaps in that "God" message will be written that woman are to be treated equally and with kindness and respect. Do you think it possible that this "Messiah" will permit folks to bury their dead as they please without intervention from shamans.

This halachic superstitious rubbish is pathetic and disgusting. Rabbi Amar is a witch doctor. I remember well a childhood neighbour who informed me that as long as he wore his tallis, if he were to walk into the street and get hit by a car, it would save him. He also told me that when the Messiah comes, Elijah will sit in the clouds and trumpets will play. Elijah had best be wearing a parachute on top of his tallis. Last time I was in the clouds the only chairs I saw were on El Al.

Migdal HaEmek's population is religious, a large portion of which are Ultra Orthodox , the alst time i went thereit was a very nice northern country. I had a good look from the tower. I am very disappointed to hear this news, cos I found them all very nice simple rabbis. Although the old bronze city was so ultra , yet ,the small Arabic village (Mujeidal) was allowed to be built on the higher slopes of the hills, and a small church was built therein . I was suprised to see such tolerance then, Neverthe less shocked I am at the very treatment of jews by jews, something went very wrong ;-(

There was a lot of progress for Jewish women during the Middle Ages -- for example, the ending of bigamy. I don't think there has been a single universally accepted decision in Judaism that benifited women since than.

This stupid old Idiot is without compassion and feeling. He has no business being a Rabbi. This woman wasn't at the funeral of her next door neighbour (also someone’s father) but her own FATHER, as if that's not traumatic enough for her. We are taught to respect our parents, that means both in life and death. Someone should question this stupid old man's beliefs and values, because for sure, they are not - and do not come close to, anything that resembles Judaism. I’m sure had she ‘made a donation’ she’d have been allowed to do whatever she wants. Don’t GASP in horror – it happens – all the time. Money talks to these scumbags.

The rabbis have once again proven they are neither wise nor authorized by Torah. They are adding illegal additions to Torah against the prohibition in Devarim 4. Not a word. Additionally the plague idea that Israel would be punished because a single woman even if she said something most evil is ridiculous. It mocks God as a righteous slow to anger God and even more so it testifies that the people under Rabbinic leadership are not only susceptible to punishment for what they have done but that they are a hairs breath away from illness. Why are the people so closes to the curses if the Rabbis are doing their job? If they are not acting as prophets giving signs and wonders and not as judges to the strict adherence to Moses words, they should shut up themselves.

How DARE you judge a woman who is grieving over her father? How judgemental, self-righteous and down-right nasty can you get? I don't even want to know. People like you and those Taliban rabbis make me ashamed of being Jewish.

I am deeply saddened by the indignity you had to suffer due to another's sense of tradition. Judging by the replies on this Talkback, there are many others who are thusly affected. The Mystery of this world is bounded beyond my knowledge and strikes me as marvelous that a eulogy you wished to give but couldn't ,should find its way across an ocean and make me aware of your lament. May the day come when you see your father in every raindrop, in the setting of every sun, the ripple in every brook and upon the dewdrop of every blade of grass. On that day, may the sorrow of your loss be lifted and filled with a sense of the everlasting presence of life and your fathers place in it. May grace visit you at this most difficult time.

What is a woman to this rabbi? A baby-making machine, a housekeeping servant to cook for him, clean up after him and take his abuse? That's the code of the Q'ran.

Sadly, the glimpse at the mortuary was the last since my mother ordered a cremation which was her call. There were no theaters of guests: only family. His ashes were given to me in my grief that he was cremated. I had them interred in a cemetery without a ceremony since Abba was allergic to religious ceremonies. He loved the Lord, but not religions.

Isaac and Ishmael buried him. Not Keturah, his wife that scholars believe was Hagar, Ishmael's mother. Keturah was not even mentioned as being there. When angels asked Abraham where Sarah was long before that, the Patriarch answered, "BEHOLD! In the tent!" Apparently, that was unusual and was something to be proud of. You do not appreciate the simple majesty of tears over words. You do not appreciate the example of the Patriarch's sons for the pinacle of burial procedures. Maybe you appreciate the bounty of life and a homeland the Lord gave to Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob. If so, then it is all because God loved Abraham and Isaac and Jacob: but Abraham, first. You make light of the way of Abraham and mock being Jewish. So renounce your heritage and be a Goy since you hate Jewish customs so much you think a wild out of control daughter who has no respect for authority and traditions of the Patriarchs should be commended instead of escorted to a mental hospital.

The rabbi humilliated the woman in public, this goes against Torah principles. Tolerance of sick, blind dogma does not help anybody, only gives control of peoples lives to Rabbies

You are a self-righteous, hateful woman without compassion. In case it has escaped your notice - we don't live in the age of the Abraham Avinu anymore. Rashi and Maimonides wouldn't recognize your brand of Judaism. Your opinion is of no relevance. Oh, and make sure not to bite your tongue, you might die of poisoning.

From the facts, we know the father wasn't secular, but rather a member of a religious congregation: "the funeral was also attended by rabbis, the mayor and chairman of the city's religious council, Rabbi Yaakov Amar." 1) his family APPOINTED a specific rabbi to conduct the funeral services; and 2) his family INVITED prominent rabbis who knew the father to attend; The father and the rest of his family (along with the furious daughter "Batya") could have FREELY CHOSEN (just like most secular Israelis CHOOSE) to have a funeral that wasn't Haredi, or to be buried in a non-Haredi cemetary, or to appoint a non-Haredi rabbi (or no rabbi) to conduct the funeral. However, the father and the majority of his family CHOSE to have his funeral conducted according to the customs of his own religious congregation. The daughter wasn't happy with that decision and tried to hijack the funeral to comply with her own wishes, without respecting the wishes of own her father and the rest of her family to bury him according to his own customs. Some of these talkbacks outright reject the FREE CHOICE and CIVIL RIGHT of a person in Israel to CHOOSE to live by religious customs within the law (or is it only Judaism that angers them so much?). Their anti-Judaic comments sound more like the dictatorial Ayatollahs of Iran than the Jews whom they accuse of that behavior. Do you know why this exact same conflict does NOT happen in the State of Israel at every single funeral of a non-religious person who has a non-religious daughter? Because non-religious people and their families CHOOSE to have a funeral without these customs, or according to the customs of a different religious congregation. Please have respect for the deceased, who can no longer speak on his own behalf to defend HIS OWN DECISION to have a funeral according to his own religious customs.

Ibsen wrote a book called "The Doll House" exactly referring to your question, and, I think you need a joke or two. Do you know the difference between an Israeli and an Israelite? About 30 calories. And do you know what they call an oriental Jewess? An "Orienta." Jewish women have had to 'go under the screen' when it comes to Jewish males. As the saying goes, "Behind every successful man is a surprised women." Shalom.

That rabbi is the example of the disrespect and distortion of Torah by too many of the leaders of orthodoxy. Sad that 50% of our population is always relagated to second place citizenship.

The Lord is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The laws God gave to Moses are the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. True, it is all right to be more merciful than the law. People are no longer literallly stoned with rocks for offenses, but are hit hard with depression and calamities for sin. Do you really think Abraham is not an example to follow yesterday, today, and tomorrow? A lot of Jews who do not believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are benefiting from God's love for those people. Your lack of respect for God and the Patriarchs and the order of authority that God set in place, is sad. God is the head of the man. Man is the head of the woman. A lot of men are not worthy of that sacred place, so women rebel. The Bible says REBELLION is as the SIN OF WITCHCRAFT. The penalty for withcraft that is unrepented of is eternal death=eternal separation from God after physical death. If you are jealous of my knowledge, read the Bible instead of mocking God and His ways as shown us by the Patriarchs.

|Are you suggesting by your reference to 'western culture' that I am upholding some inferior culture not based on western, judeo-christian values? Excuse me if I am mistaken but you sound like a feminist and that delusion, from its' very inception has NEVER led to freedom for women but rather the opposite. I, on the other hand, have equal trust and equality with my husband because we both know and understand our respective roles. I therefore repeat what I said in my original talkback.

Allow me to remind you, dead women do not attend funerals.

He ought to have compassion for the living

I'll wager he gave himself his name: Rabbi Amar. How clever. A witty shingle to hang on his door, pretending to know all. . . It does not make him a man worth listening to. He is a disgrace. He deserves no respect.

if you are not brought up in a learned religious environment to accept and understand this. My sympathy is for everyone, the grief stricken daughter and the Rabbi trying to apply Halacha correctly. Everyone loses here.

Please dont encourage the women, she is not even jewish but one of those christian missionaries, more than likely in some home for the religiously insane. Dont waste your energy Esther shes not worth it.

Don't confuse the customs of Israel with customs of other nations: In nearly 4000 years of Jewish religious tradition, a funeral has never been a Public Town-Hall Meeting where everybody is entitled to have a turn to vent their minds in public about the recently departed, while nobody cares that the deceased can't reply on their own behalf when somebody takes the opportunity of a person's funeral to have "the last word". Before the Shiva and extended mourning process begins for family members, a traditional Jewish funeral is silent and respectful. Like Rivkah mentioned, even weeping is silent and personal out of respect for the deceased and consideration of the feelings of other mourners. The body is covered in a clean linen shroud or kittel for direct burial in the earth. There's no open or closed casket, no cocktail-party wake, no funeral songs or dirges or requiems, no ululators, and no other attention-grabbing displays of grief, like cutting skin or shaving hair as expressions of grief. When a person contributed to the community, the rabbi usually says a brief sentence of public recognition on behalf of the community. With guidance from the rabbi, a brief sentence is sometimes said by the surviving head of the family, and certain Psalms are recited by the mourners. Rather than treat a funeral like a television talk-show therapy session focused on mourners at the expense of the honor of the departed when their dignity is the most vulnerable, Jewish tradition asks the close family members only to say Kaddish on behalf of the deceased, who can no longer say the holy words of the Kaddish on their own behalf. The traditional mourning process begins after the funeral, when the family and community shift from focusing on caring for the dignity and final needs of the departed, to caring for the physical and emotional needs of the mourners. The explanation given to the daughter in this article sounds to me like a desperate attempt to persuade her to respect her father's wishes after reasoning with her failed. A similar principle was expressed "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."