Posted on 09/18/2006 3:14:32 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A stray dog which refused to budge from the home of a recently deceased rabbi has finally moved on after a "redemption ceremony" at an Israeli cemetery.
The dog, pictured in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper Monday, showed up at the house of the late Rabbi Nahman Dubinky.
Rabbis expert in Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism, concluded the animal could be possessed by a tortured soul seeking redemption. Ultra-Orthodox Jews traditionally do not keep dogs as pets.
"Sometimes the souls of sinners, such as adulterers or people who slept with non-Jews, enter the body of a dog," Rabbi Yitzhak Basri, a Kabbalah scholar, told Israel Radio.
"It is known that when a righteous man dies, the souls of people in need of redemption come to him so they can be healed as a result of his death."
Basri said Rabbi Dubinky's family, along with a quorum of 10 mourners, carried out a "redemption ceremony" at a cemetery on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives.
"Afterwards, the dog did indeed leave the house," he said.
Madonna is going to need a pretty big dog.
Thought you'd like this one.
Are you implying she slept with non-Jews?
The original or the current?
I'm thinking there were not many Jews playing for the Miami Heat when she was their "mascot".
I'm thinking there were not many Jews playing for the Miami Heat when she was their "mascot".
ping
There are a number of dog stories current in the Middle East.
Last year, in Meshed in Iran, a dog somehow got into the holy shrine of Imam Reza. It sat down beside his grave and howled. Some witnesses said it shed tears - the stories kept multiplying.
The dog was carried out of the shrine on a sling (its presence was a form of pollution) but rather suprisingly treated kindly by the Shrine guardians, who said that it had come there 'for refuge.'
Wild stories circulated, and people said this was a portent of some type.
This could certainly explain some of our Homer's angst... I've often said he's an 'old soul'... Lots of worries behind his eyes sometimes.
Find the nearest church that's having a Blessing of the Animals, and haul Homer over there and get him properly blessed. It may make him feel better!
(However, it did NOT calm Shelley's exuberant temperament ONE iota. I think St. Francis rather liked it, but the priest wasn't too thrilled when he got muddy paw prints on the CHEST due to her enthusiastic attempts to kiss his face . . . )
So...he's inhabited by the soul of some shell-shocked sinner?
I love that picture, by the way. He does have an adorable face...
Can't hurt to have him blessed :~)
Gonna need a whole kennel.
sweet looking pooch.
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