Jewish Burial

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A Closely Guarded Tradition

The Jewish burial is a tradition closely guarded by the elders of the Jewish faith, and the protection is with good reason. Burial among Jews is in competition with cremation as the body disposal method of choice. And that is ironic considering that Jews have long had strict prohibitions against cremation. (In fact, the traditional view is that cremation results in pain and torment of the soul involved along with the souls of every person who participated in the cremation. This is why traditional Jewish canon requires that, if a person requests his or her body be involved in anything but a burial, the request be flatly denied – for the sake of all souls involved.

But despite the official sanctions against cremation, some Jewish funeral homes today have started performing cremations, and experts estimate that the rise in cremations among Jews is about the same as the overall rise in cremations among all faiths in the Western society.This intriguing development seems likely to be due to the prevailing conventional wisdom in Western thought that cremation is probably more economical, better for the environment, more sanitary, and, well, more convenient than burial.

Nevertheless, many Jewish families continue to defy this wisdom and steadfastly require that their loved one's bodies be buried, not cremated. Below are some of the arguments put forward by Orthodox Jews who remain true to this hard line in favor of Jewish Burial.

The first, and probably most convincing, argument in favor of Jewish Burial is a matter of terrifying history: a great number of holocaust victims in Germany were cremated – some while still alive and conscious. This alone, the hard-liners say, should be enough to make any Jew reject the idea of cremation with no further discussion.

In regards to the environmental benefits of a Jewish burial, Jewish leaders point out that decomposition is a natural process that actually creates healthy soil. Cremation, meanwhile, involves the release of chemicals, unnaturally, into the air. (If we no longer burn leaves because of environmental concerns, then why do we allow the burning of bodies, which are much more chemically complex, the argument goes.) Proponents of Jewish burial, for example, note that many human bodies today contain very poisonous substances such as mercury used in teeth fillings.

When it comes to matters of economics, Jewish burials can be far less expensive than cremations, if the burial is conducted without a casket or even the use of a cemetery. Burying a family member naturally on private land is about as inexpensive as one can get, the Jewish Burial proponents argue.

In general, those in favor of preserving the rich cultural tradition of Jewish burial point out that no-frills, simple, direct burial is about as inexpensive and as environmentally sound as one can get. They also point out that burials are an extremely important part of Jewish culture from a historical perspective. The founders of many Jewish communities over the centuries have started their villages by first establishing a local burial ground, and the city grew from there.