The Lion’s Authority: A Cemetery Crisis in Paris

As Operation Sha’agat Ha-ari – The Lion’s Roar – continues, we have an opportunity to examine another remarkable volume of responsa bearing the name Sha’agat Aryeh.

As noted previously, Rabbi Aryeh Leib Ginzburg (1695–1785) published a collection of his responsa under the title Sha’agat Aryeh. This volume contains “literary responsa” as distinct from “legal responsa”: there are no external questioners; rather, the scholarly author is in dialogue with himself.

This raises a compelling question: Did Rabbi Aryeh Leib’s contemporaries view him as a practical halakhic authority who could contend with contemporary issues? Or did they see him as a theoretician, buried in Talmudic minutiae and unable to offer meaningful halakhic guidance?

A window onto this question is found in a different volume. Sha’agat Aryeh was published in 1756 during the author’s lifetime, and another volume of his responsa appeared nearly a century after his death: She’elot U-teshuvot Sha’agat Aryeh Ha-hadashot [New Sha’agat Aryeh Responsa] (Vilna 1873). Like the first volume, the inquiries are self-posed, save for one section containing a query sent by a rabbi of stature. The sender was none other than Rabbi Yosef David Sintzheim (1745-1812), writing at the behest of his brother-in-law.

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Architects of French Jewry

To appreciate the significance of this legal exchange, we must look at the two figures involved in posing the question. Rabbi Sintzheim would later become the president of the Grand Sanhédrin – the assembly of Jewish notables convened by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807-1808. Following that episode, he was appointed as head of the Consistoire central israélite de France, effectively serving as the country’s leading rabbinic authority.

Rabbi Sintzheim was also a prolific writer. In 1799, he published a volume of Talmudic commentary, Yad David, a work that stands out for the remarkable number of books he cites.

At the time of the correspondence, Rabbi Sintzheim and his wife Esther (d. 1793) were supported by Esther’s brother, Herz Cerf Beer of Medelsheim (1726-1793). Cerf Beer was a purveyor to the French army and a tireless shtadlan [advocate] for the Jewish community. When Cerf Beer faced a communal predicament in Paris, he instructed his brother-in-law to seek the halakhic counsel of the aging Lion of Metz. Thirty-nine-year-old Sintzheim had yet to hold a rabbinic appointment; thus, when he wrote to Rabbi Aryeh Leib in 1784, he noted explicitly that he was doing so at the behest of his brother-in-law.

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A Threatened Cemetery

In 1784, Parisian Ashkenazi Jews were in a conundrum. For over half a century, they had buried their dead in a plot of land belonging to a non-Jew, in exchange for a fee. The landlord now sought to reclaim the land for agriculture, a move that would inevitably desecrate the graves.

A legal battle in the French courts bought the community a five-year reprieve, but time was running out. They tried to purchase the land, but the owner refused to sell. They searched for alternative plots, without success. The Parisian Ashkenazi community was desperate. The Sephardic community in Paris held an adjacent plot of land that served as their communal burial ground. An agreement was reached after complex negotiations: the Ashkenazi community would disinter their dead and rebury them in the Sephardic cemetery.

Alas, the exhumation process raised a series of thorny halakhic questions. Rabbi Sintzheim therefore submitted five queries to the Sha’agat Aryeh:

1. Is it permitted to exhume the dead to move them to the Sephardic cemetery?
2. Given the small size of the Sephardic burial grounds, is it permitted to bury the coffins one on top of the other?
3. Must each person’s bones be kept in a separate bag, or can they be mingled?
4. Should the old, empty coffins be buried or incinerated?
5. As the community intended to procure its own land, what are the proper procedures for consecrating a new cemetery?

Scholars have identified the sites mentioned in the responsum. The Sephardic plot appears to be the Cimetière des Juifs portugais de Paris, consecrated in 1780. Shortly after this correspondence, Cerf Beer purchased land for the Cimetière Ashkénaze which was opened in 1785. In 1810, the community transitioned to the Cimetière du Père‑Lachaise, where Rabbi Sintzheim was buried in 1812.

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A Roar of Approval

In a rare move for responsa publishing, Rabbi Sintzheim’s original proposed answers were preserved alongside the Sha’agat Aryeh’s ruling. Rabbi Sintzheim argued that exhumation was permitted in order to protect the dignity of the deceased. Stacked burial was also permitted, provided there was a gap between coffins. Bones should not be mingled, and the unearthed coffins did not require reburial.

Regarding the purchase of a new cemetery, Rabbi Sintzheim recounted a curious folk custom:

“People say that when there is a desire to consecrate a new cemetery, we do not finalise the purchase until someone – Heaven forefend – actually dies and is ready for burial there. And in truth, I have never seen a source for this. Nonetheless, a custom of Israel is considered Torah. Perhaps it is done in accordance with ‘one should not open one’s mouth to Satan,’ Heaven forefend. And a sign is considered a legitimate factor.”

The Sha’agat Aryeh responded with a roar of approval, confirming Rabbi Sintzheim’s rulings. However, he had harsh words for the practice of leaving a purchase unfinalized until the first burial: “This concern has no source or root, and they are words of nonsense.”

Instead, the Sha’agat Aryeh proposed a spiritual practice: the community should establish a hevra kadisha [burial society], and its members should fast and recite selihot [penitential prayers], ask for divine mercies and plead with God that “Death will be destroyed forever.”

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Anointing the Lion

Responsa literature has a distinctive dynamic: as opposed to other legal writing, the questioners drive the agenda, and they effectively anoint the respondent as a halakhic authority. By choosing to consult Rabbi Aryeh Leib Ginzburg, Cerf Beer and Rabbi Sintzheim essentially recognised his authority. What began as a local burial problem in Paris became an informal expression of confidence in the Sha’agat Aryeh’s expertise.

The Sha’agat Aryeh closed his response with three powerful biblical words: Bila ha-mavet la-netzach, death will be destroyed forever. As we navigate Operation Sha’agat Ha-ari, we echo that ancient signature and the words of the prophet Isaiah (25:8):

“Death will be destroyed forever, and the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and put an end to the reproach of God’s people over all the earth, for it is the Lord who has spoken.”