Why the Bondi victims’ bodies were not ritually cleansed before burial

In Orthodox Judaism, before a body is buried, it is washed and cleaned by members of the Jewish burial society, the Chevra Kedisha. In communities around the world, burial societies are made up of volunteers who follow a strict protocol called Tahara as they prepare the dead body for burial, and the deceased is immersed in a mikveh, a ritual bath, seven times, before the body is dressed in a simple white shroud and then placed in a plain wooden coffin.

In death, the trappings that distinguish between people fall away. Nobody is buried in their wealth, their professional achievements or the status they accumulated while alive. In Judaism, all people return to the earth as they came into the world: without any possessions and in a simple casket. The volunteers who complete this washing and dressing of the body perform an act known in Hebrew as chessed shel emet, a deed of true kindness that can never be repaid by the dead.

However, when a Jew is murdered for being a Jew, the burial process changes.

In Jewish tradition, people murdered for being Jewish are described as dying al kiddush Hashem, for the sanctification of God's name. The term has a long and terrible history. Over centuries, Jews have been killed for refusing to abandon their faith, for belonging to a people others wanted erased, and for the simple fact of being born a Jew.

When a Jew is killed al kiddush Hashem, with violence and with specific intent to murder them, no Tahara is performed, and a body is not cleaned nor immersed in a mikveh.

According to Jewish tradition, a person who was murdered for being Jewish does not require any further act of purification or cleansing. They have already ascended to the highest levels of heaven.