A Deeper Understanding

For centuries, Jewish burial has been a central event in Jewish death practices. Since Biblical times Jews have been buried in the ground.

Overview

Honoring the dead (Kavod hameit) is the basis for all the Jewish death practices.  One of the earliest stories in the Torah describes Abraham’s negotiations to purchase a burial place for his wife Sarah.

Traditional in-ground burial includes burying the casketed body in a grave six-feet deep and marking it with an upright gravestone or a flat footstone.  There is a similar approach known as “natural burial,” in which the body is placed, sometimes without a casket, into a shallow grave (three feet deep rather than six). There may be a small natural stone marker rather than a traditional gravestone.

Details

Traditional Jewish burial can be in a dedicated Jewish cemetery or a municipal or private cemetery with a Jewish section. Throughout our history, there have been in-ground burials, as evidenced by the Biblical burial grounds of our forefathers and foremothers in Hebron.

In the US, older cemeteries often did not require a grave liner (a concrete container into which the casket is placed), whereas modern cemeteries often have this requirement in order to prevent slumping of the grounds when caskets deteriorate.

Today, Jewish tradition is to bury the dead in-ground. If the deceased is to be buried in Israel or to be buried in a family plot, disinterment may occur. In our modern world, rather than in-ground burial, new forms of non-traditional methods of disposition have arisen. However, burial is the traditional Jewish practice.

Modern Disposition Methods

While burial is still the traditional Jewish custom, it is appropriate to be educated about modern practices within the society around us.

• Donation to Science:  With full-body donation to science, a donated body is typically used by medical students to learn anatomy and by medical professionals when learning new surgical techniques. Often, after one year, the remaining parts of the body are cremated and increasingly today a memorial service is held. Full-body donation is a form of kindness to support future generations’ medical knowledge. There is no guarantee that the donating family will be notified when use of the body is no longer required.
• Alkaline Hydrolysis:  In the "liquid cremation" process (fluid dissolving of remains), the body is placed into a container filled with a solution that dissolves the tissues. When this is completed, the solution is discarded, and the bones are ground into a powder.
• Human Composting:  In "Natural Organic Reduction" (human composting), the body is placed into a container with a significant amount of alfalfa and straw, and left to compost over a period of time. After this, any hardware that remains (such as screws or joint replacements) is removed, the bones are collected, crushed, and remixed with the remains to create the resultant cubic yard of material which can then be given to the family.
• Cremation:  Cremation is the incineration of the body followed by the grinding of remaining bones into a powder. While cremation has been thought by some to be environmentally more attractive than burial, it is now known that the process releases many pollutants into the air and uses significant fossil fuel in the process. During WW2, Hitler chose cremation because it is so antithetical to Jewish belief. In the context of a post-Holocaust world many Jews feel it is an inappropriate method of disposition.

Resources to Learn More

• An article describing modern methods of disposition written by a Jewish funeral home preplanning specialist. It gives insight into the impacts on the environment of each method.
• BimBam video:  Burial vs Cremation
• BimBam video:  The Man Who Buried His Leg
• Video interview with Juan Valdez, a professional cremator, facilitated by Holly Blue Hawkins - details on what happens in a cremation.