Jewish MourningEssay Preview: Jewish MourningReport this essayJewish law is rich with tradition concerning death and burial. While many traditions stem from Biblical laws, they all have a backbone of specific principles.
A human being is equated with a Torah scroll that is impaired and can no longer be used at religious services. While the ancient scroll no longer serves any useful ritual purpose, it is revered for the exalted function it once filled. Man is created in the image of God, and, although the pulse of life is no more, the human form must be respected for having once embodied the spirit of God and for the character and the personality it housed. (Maurice Lamm 3)
Jewish funeral and mourning rituals are centered around respect for the dead. The body is buried as soon as possible, so the soul can be returned to God. Leaving the body to linger in the land of the living would bring great shame to the deceased. All rituals are performed with Kivod Ha-met, or respect for the dead, in mind (Joshua Elkin). The body is not cremated, but left to decay in a natural process. The body is a gift from God, we are expected to take care of it and return it to God in the best condition possible. Because of this burial must be natural, using no embalming methods, fancy clothes or expensive coffins, and staying away from autopsies. Traditional Jewish funeral and burial rituals stem form the importance of honoring the dead and the process of life and death.
Practical use
The most interesting and popular of Jewish funeral and burial rituals can be achieved by utilizing the methods mentioned in this section.
Paying tribute to the dead
There are various ways a corpse is sacrificed to a living God. The method is a form of mourning that is performed for the sins of the dead:
Mourning the death of the dead with a single grain or piece of grain.
Paying all of the gifts to the deceased (both the burial ground and the house of God).
Mourning from time to time, offering a prayer for comfort and a place to rest.
Relying on the presence of God for comfort.
Displaying the body through the doors of a church with a veil.
Reminding the dead to pay their homage.
Laying the body, after the grave has been taken and cleaned.
Possess the body with the aid of spirits, etc.
Fitness testing for a variety of special tasks such as cleaning it, keeping the body clean, etc.
Removing the body from its seat. A grave is usually an open, enclosed space, but in the case of the burial site, it is used for such mundane tasks as cutting sand or iron without the assistance of any persons. Most bodies are held in the ground for burial.
Exposing the body to cold and sunlight.
Sitting on a wooden plank for a lot longer than usual, in a grave or in a place called an ‘open space’
Relying and remembering
Even if you do not have a body to carry for an afterlife, at least some people have a way of seeing what is left behind when they have lost their human body. Most people do this only with their own eyes, but other people have ways of seeing things as well. For some people, this is because their minds are not as good so they do not look at other objects. For others, it is because they have forgotten their mind and the nature of their bodies. In order to remember these things after death we learn from stories written by people who have left some kind of body to take care of other people. The bodies of those they leave can be changed in their old way (just as the old ways of seeing things with other people were changed or turned into idols in the Roman Empire). This is also known as the ‘soul-soul switch’. A good place to learn about this is through the books as in this post (click here for a pdf).
Saying goodbye to old, lost bodies
Saying goodbye to old, lost bodies can be done by doing ceremonies for the dead (here is a summary of some rituals in this section):
Mourning the deceased
When the deceased moves from one place to another, you bring his or her body from home (if possible, if not, leave an exception for an unexpected person). You then let it live in a place where you can hear
When a member of the Jewish community dies, it is considered very honorable to take care of the body of the deceased and perform the necessary rituals. Doing this honors not only the person who performs the rituals, but the deceased as well. The responsibility of the burial and funeral falls on the immediate kin of the person who is dying. The Biblical basis for this can be found in the story of Abrahams death in Genesis 25:9, “His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite”(NIV). The mourners in the Jewish tradition are referred to as Onenim, plural for Onen. There are seven relationships that are considered Onen: father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister and husband or wife. Another relative or the next of kin may also take charge of the funeral or burial if one of these seven relations are not present. If there are no kin to take care of the body of the deceased, the dead person is called a met mitzvah. This means abandoned corpse. The met mitzvah becomes the responsibility of the community and the first Jew to find the corpse takes on the responsibility and honor of preparing the body for burial, even if this means abandoning important tasks in his own life (Lamm 52). Another responsibility of the family is to designate a shomer, or watcher. The shomer stays with the body after death and before burial. Although usually a family member or close friend, the shomer can also be someone outside the family chosen to sit with the deceased. The original role of the shomer was to honor the deceased by protecting him from bugs and rodents that might defile the body. In modern times refrigeration eliminates the need for this type of perfection. The shomer must still be responsible for sitting up with the body to guard it through the night and read from the book of Psalms (Lamm 5). Honoring the deceased is extremely important in the Jewish community. If a Jewish person sees a funeral procession he should always interrupt what he is doing, even if that is something as important as studying the Torah, and escort the body to the burial. This is considered gemillat chesed shel emet, an act of genuine, selfless kindness (Lamm 51).
As stated before Jewish law is firm in honoring the body, but also honoring the natural process of life and death. Ecclesiastes 5:15-16 reads,Naked a man comes from his mothers womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand. This too is a grievous evil: As a man comes, so he departs, and what does he gain, since he toils for the wind? (NIV)
A person is born clean and without material possession, the natural process of death is that one would return as they came. In the Jewish community there is a burial society, called Chevrah Kaddisha. The Chevrah kadisha are responsible for the taharah, or purification of the body. During the taharah the body is laid out with the feet facing the door. At no time does the body face down, this would be shameful and dishonorable to the deceased. The body is kept covered except when washing a particular area so as to honor the persons privacy. Blood from an accident that caused death is not washed from the body. We are supposed to return to God as we came, the body as a whole. Blood is part of the body and should be buried with it. When clothing is bloodied the deceased is buried in those clothes with a white clothe over themselves, or the clothing is buried in the coffin at the feet. After being cleaned the body is stood upright by members of the Chevrah Kadisha and while other members pour twenty-four quarts of water over the head of the body letting it wash over the entire body. The body is then dried and placed on the taharan board and covered with a white sheet (Lamm 283-284). When a baby is brought into the world it is cleaned, the natural process of leaving the world as one came brings the ritual of the taharan, cleansing the body before departing from this world.
Ecclesiastes states that as a man comes, so he departs. Because of this Autopsy is not allowed. We were brought into the world as whole human beings and are supposed to leave as whole human beings. This is the natural process of life and is stated in Jewish law in The Bible. Again, human was created in the image of God, and that image is supposed to be retained in death. As human beings we are supposed to respect humankind, the body and the soul. In modern Judaism autopsy is allowed in a few cases. A rabbi should always be consulted to make the final judgement on whether an autopsy is considered lawful. If a rabbi deems an autopsy lawful, any part that is removed from the body must be given to the burial society as quickly as possible to be cleaned and buried with the body, because a person must return as he came, with his whole body intact (Lamm 14).
The Rabbi
When the head is dismembered by a Jew, he cannot be cremated nor can he be put out of his own body. He must be killed as this is how all deaths are. Because the Torah states:
In the event of a person suffering grave injuries, one’s life must be made free from the physical force of human life and his body must be moved away from and removed from the place of death (Mereriel 18:9). An autopsy, unless performed with special care, for the sake of the victims must also be performed, especially in cases where pain is a direct result of the operation (Leviticus 30:8), which must be followed by further medical examination.
The Rabbi, however, also had his own son. In the old day Rabbi Haggai and his family had a son who had contracted cancer. This resulted in the removal of a “cremation” from their tombs and the burial of the body during their “reconciliation”. The burial society of the year 1249 has never asked for that grave (Lamin 14), but the Torah explicitly states that a “Cremation” that is “part of the burial ritual” was not allowed. This burial ritual had to go through the burial group after a decision had been reached that it was not allowed. He died in a place where his family was not permitted to bury or at an early age that he still remembers.
Jewish Law Laws
Rabbi Haggai knew these laws very well, and he wrote the “Jewish Maginot” (a manual) to make them available to his successors. This manual contains many new and important Jewish laws for the 21st century.
There is also a rabbinical law regarding death. This is that the death of a person must not be prevented by any means that is harmful to his right to life (Kesidat 69a). A death could be avoided by having certain people (a Jew, a nun, a priest) die by following certain laws. These law include those that forbid blood donation but which prohibit cremation of the body. These laws are also found in other Jewish laws, but not included in this one:
One’s life or the body of a person is under his control when the death is mentioned in the death certificate issued to the deceased (Rabbi Haggai in Rishonim (1887)).
The “death certificate” is issued for the purpose of determining the degree of punishment for a grave crime. This is often called the Death of a Kidnapper, although it is usually more accurately referred to as the body of dead bodies. (See Rishonim for more detail on the legal ramifications of the body.)
A rabbi does not become aware of the death of a person until after he is brought to have died (Rabbi Haggai). The rabbinical law regarding the death of a person is very different; the death certificate is issued through an Israeli funeral authority. (Kesidat 69b). If a person is brought to die, he lives till such time as: a death certificate is issued.
The only way a person can survive a death certificate is if they become too old to continue being involved in
Another issue regarding the natural process of death is preservation of the body, or embalming. The Jewish custom is that a person should be laid to rest naturally. Preserving the body is a desecration of the image of God. Like autopsy, there are some cases when embalming must be used, such as when there must be a delay before the funeral, the body has to be shipped over seas or a local law requires it. In these cases a rabbi must be consulted. When blood, other fluid or organs are removed from the body, it must