For You Should Surely Bury Him (Dvarim 21:23) 

HaRav Shimon Golan

 

The purpose of this article is to present the burial methods currently used in the cemetery in Kfar Etzion (used by Efrat and Gush Etzion), based on the foundations of halacha and contemporary poskim.

The importance of the mitzvah of burial can be learned from the teachings of Chazal (Tractate Sotah 14A):

You should follow after the Lord your God; And how is it possible for a person to follow after the Shechinah? Rather they must follow the virtues of the Blessed One ... The Blessed One buries the dead, as it says: And He buried him (Moshe) in the valley, so you should also bury the dead.

Burying the dead in the ground is a halakhic obligation, as is stated in Sanhedrin 46B:

Rabbi Yochanan says in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai: Where is burial hinted at in the Torah? It says: For you should surely bury him. From here we learn that the Torah hints at burial.

According to this, the Tur learns (Yoreh Deah, 362):

From where do we learn that we must bury the dead in the ground and not leave them in a coffin? It is said: For you should surely bury him. Therefore one who places the dead in a coffin and does not bury him in the ground is in violation because they must be buried in the ground. And if he makes a coffin for the dead and buries him in the ground, he is not in violation. In any case, it is beautiful to bury him in the land. Burial in the land is a mitzvah, even outside of Israel. And in each place it is done according to the custom. Some bury in caves, some bury in trenches, some use coffins and some do not.   

And so writes the Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deah, 362a.

Until a few years ago, the common custom in Israel was to bury "in trenches" (field burial), ideally without a coffin, except in specific cases (IDF casualties, etc.). However, this is not the original custom, as the Jerusalem Talmud states (Moed Katan Chapter 1 Halacha 5):

At first they were buried in pits. The flesh would get eaten, and the bones would be placed in a coffin or ossuary. That day he would mourn, and the next day he would be happy to say that his ancestors were resting according to the law.

Their custom was quite different from our custom, because their burial took place in two stages; First the deceased was placed in a temporary location until the body decomposed, and after that the bones were buried. It seems that this custom still existed in some places during the period of the Shulchan Aruch, since that is the psak (Yoreh Deah 363, 4):

A place where it is customary to bury in trenches without a coffin until the  body decomposed, and then the bones are buried in the coffin - it is permitted.

Due to a shortage of land for burial, in recent years the idea arose to return to this type of burial (Sanhedrin burial), and important rabbis even gave their blessing to this method (among them; HaRav Dov Lior, and HaRav Yaakov Roja, Rav Zaka and the Chevra Kadisha of Tel Aviv).

Other solutions that are implemented in our cemetery (Gush Etzion-Efrat) are burial in alcoves, and multiple burials in one plot.

Some have objected to the changes in burial procedures, according to Rabbi Tucazinsky in his book "Gesher Hachaim" (Chapter 33):

God forbid any change should be made to the customs of the Chevra Kadisha, especially in the Land of Israel … the Poskim have warned not to change the customs of the Chevra Kadisha, and some say that there is danger in changing - especially in a holy city in the Holy Land, where all the customs were established from the pillars of Israel

Nor should the Chevra Kadisha make general changes in the way they purify and bury the bodies, because customs hold great power, especially in spiritual matters such as these. Even a custom that is not understood should not be challenged, because it has been accepted from previous years. 

As it is stated, these customs are not new inventions, rather they are customs that existed in previous generations.

HaRav Yosef Lieberman, author of "Mishnat Yosef" and rabbi in the Haredi community, published a letter (Iyar 5766) opposing changes in burial arrangements:

Don’t bring newness into burial, which is one of the main religious practices in Israel, don’t put the dead in alcoves on top of each other like shelves in a closet, bury them in the ground, as is customary throughout the Diaspora and all cemeteries in the world.

Although we have already seen something like this in olden times, in Pressburg (my hometown) which was a very old community. Hundreds of years ago the cemetery was completely filled, and so the city rabbis ordered that the cemetery be filled with dirt brought from outside at the height of 10 tefachim, in order to make a second layer of graves on top of the first layer. For they were living during a difficult time of exile among non-Jews who forced them into narrow ghettos, allotting them only a small area in the cemetery with no possibility to expand. Inevitably the cemetery was filled. Baruch Hashem, this is not true in our time, there is room to expand, so our words should be heeded... We must preserve the tradition of our ancestors and continue to practice as is now the practice in the Holy Land and throughout the entire world, preparing graves in one layer next to each other.

He is aware that "we have already seen something like this in olden times," but he argues that there is no need for this here and now. I believe there is room to disagree with this opinion, since there is a land shortage throughout the country in general, and a shortage of land for burial in particular. And these solutions post no halakhic problem, as stated above. Burial in alcoves has already been mentioned in the words of the Tur (without reservation), and a double burial is also mentioned in the words of the poskim (though not in this exact terminology).

The Rambam (Hilchot Avel Chapter 14 Halacha 16) rules:

Do not bury a body on top of a body, and don’t bury two bodies together as one, because this is a disgrace.

The Radvaz (ibid.) brings the source of the Rambam from "Avel Raboti" (Tractate Smachot, although I did not find it in in the version we have):

Don’t put two coffins on top of each other because this disgraces the dead.

This halachah was quoted by the Tur in Yoreh Deah 362:

We do not place two coffins on top of each other as it is a disgrace to the dead. If there is 6 tefachim of dirt between them it is permitted.

And the Beit Yosef writes:

And what he wrote, that there is not 6 tefachim of dirt between them etc. It is necessary to look into this, because in Torat HaAdam, the Ramban wrote about this Breita and specifically states that three tefachim of dirt is permitted. 

The usual procedure today is soil that is 60 cm high (6 tefachim for stringency) between graves in a multiple burial grave. Also when burying in alcoves, the burial is done in soil that is in the alcove.

The cemetery in Kfar Etzion operates according to the guidelines of the Ministry of Religious Affairs; Individuals are buried in alcoves or kuchim (כוכים)  (free of charge), and spouses are buried in a double grave or machpeila (מכפלה) (free of charge for the first burial, and there is a fee for holding the upper grave for the spouse according to the National Insurance rate). Families who are interested in a different kind of burial must pay a fee, provided that there are vacancies, (according to the approval of the National Insurance Institute and according to the rates of Chevra Kadisha Gush Etzion / Efrat).

Our Sages treat those whose ‘dead is lying in front of him’ in a special way. This is a very sensitive and emotional time, in which relatives are busy with the burial of their loved one, and by nature they are subject to a storm of emotions. I attest that my fellow members of the Chevra Kadisha treat families with maximum sensitivity. They present the relatives with the various burial options. It is very important to know that all of the burial options offered are according to Halacha and the decisions of the poskim.

May we merit to fulfill the words of the prophet Isaiah (25,8): He will destroy death forever, and God will wipe the tears away from every face and He will put an end to the reproach of His People over all the earth. For it is the Lord who has spoken.