Thursday, January 7th, 2010...6:01 am
Goral haGra “Identification of 12 of the bodies”
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After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, when the bodies of the Convoy of 35 were returned to Israel, the Israel Defense Forces Chief Rabbinate couldn’t verify the identity of 12 bodies. The problem of the identification was due to the mutilation of the bodies. To solve the problem, Rabbi Aryeh Levin was handed the task to perform the ‘goral hagra’ (hagra = Vilna Gaon), a process in which the reader of the Torah is led to certain verses which give hints as to the subjects in question. This ceremony is unique and rarely performed. This is the best-known example of its use. [6]
Raz, Simcha (1976). A Tzaddik in Our Time: The life of Rabbi Aryeh Levin. en.wikipedia.org
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