True to Life

Apparently, the pic was real.

This is one of the more embarrassing elements of Judaism. According to this article (in Hebrew), the man is a cohen (כֹּהֵן “priest” [a son of Aaron]) who was concerned when it was reported that the flight that he had been moved to would be flying over a cemetery. This is a basic explanation of the situation.

Leviticus 21:11 has the following prohibition for cohanim (כֹּהֲנִים – plural of cohen):

וְעַ֛ל כָּל־נַפְשֹׁ֥ת מֵ֖ת לֹ֣א יָבֹ֑א לְאָבִ֥יו וּלְאִמּ֖וֹ לֹ֥א יִטַּמָּֽא׃
And he shall not approach dead bodies, nor shall he be made unclean for his father or his mother.

Since a cemetery is the place where we bury the dead, it has long been the traditional understanding of this prohibition that a cohen cannot enter a cemetery.

The man in the picture above was worried about the fact that the flight path would pass over a cemetery, so he consulted a rabbi. The rabbi told him that if he wrapped himself in a plastic bag, then he would not be contaminated and could pass over the cemetery.