Man in bag: I was following rabbi's orders

Haredi passenger photographed wrapped in large plastic bag during flight tells Ynet about his long Air Force service before becoming religious. His rabbi criticizes public reaction to photo, says people should 'treat Judaism with a minimum of respect'

Itzchak Tessler

 The ultra-Orthodox man who was photographed wrapped in a large plastic bag during a flight told Ynet on Sunday that he was "simply following my rabbi's orders."

 After his studies, he returned to the army for 10 more years – "an unprecedented move in the Air Force," he says.

The picture caught the attention of international media, as initially it was thought that he was distancing himself from women in accordance with strict rules of gender segregation in public.

The New York Daily News later explained that the man was a Kohen, a descendant of the Jewish priests who presided over the Temple, and as the aircraft flew over a cemetery he covered himself in a plastic bag so he could remain pure. Under Jewish law, Kohanim are banned from going near cemeteries. 

The Kohen, formerly a secular Jew who embraced Orthodox Judaism and asked to remain anonymous, told Ynet of his long service in the Israel Defense Forces, where he held sensitive posts. In 1983, as a show of appreciation, the Air Force commander gave him the "opportunity to study in a yeshiva at the expense of the Air Force, which paid my salary for the two and a half years I studied in the yeshiva."

 

READ MUCH MORE HERE; http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4368141,00.html