Why We Treat A Death With Reverence; Not Fodder for Plants

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

     Your children can hang the pod from their ceiling if they wish. I suppose they'll have to take the pod down and plant it in the soil where trees are needed.  

Once buried, they say, the biodegradable plastic shell breaks down and the remains provide nutrients to a sapling planted right above it.

Bretzel and Citelli believe that death is as closely related to consumerism as life. Their goal? To create cemeteries full of trees rather than tombstones, reduce waste, and create new life, like trees and plants,  out of death.

Bacteria in the soil first break down the bio-plastic, then the ashes gradually come into contact with the soil, without changing its chemical balance too dramatically.

“Because the body will purge within a year in a buried environment, the nutrients are released into the soil quite quickly, so a decently sized tree planted on top would be key. Capturing these nutrients is also important to protect groundwater,” she said.  What they are doing is turning corpses into fertilizer to grow trees.  

Abraham bought a plot of ground to bury his beloved wife, Sarah.  He didn't want the land as a gift.  He wanted it to be known that the land was his.  It had a cave on it and in that she was placed.  It became Abraham's burying ground and his children's as well.  Abraham lived in about 1948 BCE, the 2nd millennium.  It was a place of reverence.  

Why have Jews resisted Cremation?  Whatever the reasons for this new trend, Jewish teachers con­tinue to resist it. There are at least three reasons why the Jewish tradition opposes cremation: our theology, our memory, and our­ concern for the welfare of the mourner.                                                     

Funeral procession for victims of the Kielce Pogrom, Kielce, Poland 1946

Kielce in 1946 when Polish rioters killed at least 42 Jews and beat many others.

 Hatred for Jews AFTER the World War II.  Polish leaders don't want to talk about it.  They have a mythology now of them being above it all.  

First: theology. We believe we each have a soul.  In the Jewish tradition, that which was once holy remains holy, and so the body is to be treated with respect even after the soul departs. The tradition opposes self-inflicted wounds, intentional scarring, and tattoos, because the body is ours, but only on loan. Ultimately it belongs to God.

Even after death, the body is to be treated with reverence. Kavod ha-met, reverence for the dignity of the dead person, is the key to the manner in which the body is to be washed and dressed, purified and guarded until the burial. Burning the body is seen in our tradition as a desecration of what was once holy.

                                   Jewish Cemetery

                                                   

                         Another form of Indian burial.  

Indians in America have felt the same way.  Most societies have kept people out of land that is a burying ground.  It is special.  Why?                                               

A new style in getting rid of dead bodies is leaving the idea of burying people using coffins and placing in graveyards.  Now the plan is to place bodies in the soil and sprinkling with hay; turn the mixture over, and eventually plant things over it.  That's turning a body directly into the earth.  Your body is placed in a biogradable pod  that in essence can turn your body into a mixture of soil to grow a tree.  In this process, no bones are expected remain.  The person is turned into a mixture of soil.  

People asked about it feel it's better than cremating the body which is turned into ashes and kept in a jar, perhaps sitting on the mantel in the living room, doing nothing for agriculture.  Sometimes people sprinkle the ashes into the ocean or a place that the deceased enjoyed.

                                             

    Poland;  shooting Jews into a pit; stealing all their clothing first
   Some of our Jewish relatives in the Holocaust have already had this happen to their bodies.  They were shot in massive groups and their bodies were thrown into a huge pit.  Sometimes lye was sprinkled over the bodies to break down the tissue faster. This is no way to go to one's end.                                         

From reconstructed bones, scientists know what the person looked like

With this method, no more bones left of mankind.  They were in something like a blender.  

Bones of Neanderthals and homo sapiens that came later have been found  and tested.  This new method will do away with all bones.  Nothing will be left but a soil mixture of hay, human and soil, turned over and mixed all up.                        

An archaeological worker looks at the face of the linen-wrapped mummy of King Tutankhamun as he is removed from his stone sarcophagus in his underground tomb in the famed Valley of the Kings in Luxor, 04 November 2007. BEN CURTIS/AFP/Getty Images

People started treating others in Egypt, at least their leadership, buried in their own pyramid.  It was a mixture of religious belief in a world after death.  Egyptians were buried in mummies and wrapped and treated to last forever.  Today scientists can test the bones for DNA.  That means that some of these bones have lasted over 4,000 years.  

                                          

Why should we bother?  Burials can be very expensive.  There's the casket and the plot in a cemetery.  

The Jewish belief is that a burial is regarded as a basic duty to be performed for all, including criminals, suicides, and enemies.  Jewish burial practice has always been to place the corpse in an earthen grave or in a rock-cut cave.           

Often, in olden days, burial was 1st in the ground;  after the disintegration of the body, the bones were collected and placed in stone OSSUARIES and put in the family burial cave. This way there were no cemeteries.                               

In the 2nd Temple Period from 586 BCE on, tombs standing on their own and rock-cut graves, fronted by architectural facades, were common.  The practice  of constructing burial galleries underground, later exemplified at the Bet Shearim in Galilee. gave rise to the CATACOMB system adopted in Rome adopted also by the early Christians. Romans buried bodies wrapped in shrouds in catacombs of Rome. It's all underground.                         

           I'm at my Bubbie's grave, Zlata Golfdoot nee Jermulowske.  

Cremation and embalming were not Jewish customs then or now of the Orthodox and Conservative.  They bury the dead with their blood in their veins within 24 hours.  From what I've seen, the body is in a simple wooden casket and that is lowered into its pit which is cement-lined, at least in the USA that I've seen.  A burial is hastened on Fridays and on the eve of festivals.

In Israel, Jewish funerals are divided into three parts: the rending of the families’ clothes, eulogies, and burial. Family and friends usually gather in funeral halls near cemeteries to pay respects to the deceased, offer eulogies, and comfort the bereaved. They then accompany the body to the gravesite for burial.                   

Mount of Olives Cemetery in Jerusalem : The Jewish necropolis of Jerusalem has been at the foot of the mountain since the time of the First Temple of Solomon.  From 1948 to 1967, the southern part of the mount was in Jordanian hands, while the northern part was a demilitarized zone with the Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital buildings under Israel sovereignty.  After the 6 Day War of 1967, the mount was incorporated into the united Jerusalem and the university campus and the hospital were rebuilt and reopened.  the Jewish cemetery---extensively desecrated by the Jordanians---was restored.  They had taken the headstones and used them as paving material for streets.  

In Israel, Jewish funerals follow the same outline, but vary from other parts of the world in certain customs. In most Israeli funerals, there is no coffin (the body is buried in shrouds directly in the earth.) It is not customary to wrap the deceased in a tallit (prayer shawl), as is done in other Jewish communities. (If the family requests, the deceased can be wrapped in a tallit during the funeral, but it will generally be removed before burial.) Customs around the installation of headstones vary in Israel: some people unveil headstones 30 days after funerals, while others wait a year.

Everyone gets in line and each one takes the shovel and puts a scoop of soil on the casket.  When people leave, someone else from the cemetery finishes the job.  

At one time, bodies were sometimes dressed in costly garments, but this led to much abuse.  Rabbi Gamaliel, therefore, gave instructions to bury his corpse in a simple linen garment, and this became standard Jewish custom.  The body is wrapped in a shroud without any clothing, like the Egyptians did.  

Even wooden coffins were not used by all Jews.  Oriental Jews bury their dead without coffins.  The only known excavated Jewish flat cemetery of the late 2nd Temple period is at Khurbet Kumran, near the Dead Sea.

                                           

It is considered as a good deed, a mitzvah, to participate in a funeral.  With the growing complexity of the Jewish community, a HEVRAH KADDISHA (HOLY SOCIETY) was organized to provide for all the rites and details of burial.  the help read the deathbed confession, wash and dress the corpse, carry out the burial services and actual burial and provide for the special meal given to the mourners after the funeral. 

Jews aspired to be buried in Palestine in preparation for the day of resurrection.   Catholics borrowed this belief.  Jews believe is that at the end of time, the bodies of the dead will rise from their graves. Do Jews need their bones intact in order to do this?  What about the 6 million of the Holocaust who were burned to death in furnaces by the Nazis? Jewish law and tradition consider cremation as destruction of property. Jewish mysticism, or Kabbalah, also holds that the soul does not immediately depart the body. Rather, it slowly leaves the body as it decomposes; cremation therefore is considered to cause pain, even after death. Wouldn't turning the body into soil be thought of as something similar to cremation?  

We're very careful not to buy rice that was fertilized with human waste products.  I suppose acting as fertilizer for trees is less offensive.  Who's the people who will draw the line?  

Belief in resurrection was adopted by the post-exilic Judaism, particularly by the Pharisees, although rejected by the Sadducees.  The Talmud teaches belief in resurrection as a fundamental of the Jewish faith, and Maimonides incorporated it into his 13 Principles of Faith.  It's denial was generally considered as heresy until the modern period when various Reform prayer-books substituted phrases like, "eternal life" for the earlier references to resurrection.  

Although belief in resurrection seems to contradict belief in IMMORTALITY, the 2 views were combined in Jewish as well as in Christian and Moslem orthodoxy.  

From this belief came the practice of placing some Holy Land soil in the coffins of Jews buried outside of Israel, like the USA.  

                                     

ESCHATOLOGY is the doctrine of the end of days, referring to the fundamental changing of the present world by a Divine Plan at a period determined by G-d.  The eschatological world is not necessarily one that has never previously existed.  the view is sometimes advanced that on the last day the world, which was entirely good at creation and only corrupted by human deviations, will be restored to its pristine condition.

Such views were common in the ancient Orient and are found in Greek literature.  Such opinions cannot be classified in an orderly system according to logical laws of development.  A general line is nevertheless discernible in Jewish eschatology from its very beginnings in the early sections of the Bible.  

Originally people expressed their minds with such ideas after a period of suffering.  It was introduced by the great Hebrew Prophets and into their teachings with their own moral coloring which transformed the naive folk beliefs.  They had "the day of the lord", and prophets added moral content and threatened catastrophe in absence of genuine repentance: and so this special day became a day of doom.   Read Amos and you will see how it recurs in many forms and degrees with other great prophets.  

The final day was also envisioned as the great day when G-d would reform the world and reign over all people in justice. A new heaven and earth will be created, while G0d will renew His covenant with Israel and establish His throne in Zion (Jerusalem). 

      Visiting the ill is a mitzvah; we can't do this during the Covid pandemic, though

 So, the human body is sacred, made in the image of our maker, (G-d).   Since the beginning, mankind has treated it with love and kindness.  I'm just not ready to be made into fodder for plants and forgotten.

As a genealogist, this is a crime to those of us who have depended a lot on gravesite with headstones and their engraving of history; names and dates.  The census is great, but those headstones are also there where census records missed a lot of people.  What happens to that? 

                                               

 What was that movie? Soylent Green:   People went to a place on their own accord and they were put to sleep permanently with music, and then their  corpses were turned into wafers for food.  It was a  1973 American ecological dystopian thriller film directed by Richard Fleischer, and starring Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young and Edward G.Robinson.   We're just about there.  

Resource:https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/why-bury/amp/

https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/03/world/eco-solutions-capsula-mundi/index.html

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-aftermath-of-the-holocaust

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2004/jan/27/photography.museums

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green

The New Standard Jewish encyclopedia

https://www.amisraelmortuary.com/preparing-the-body-for-jewish-burial

https://www.itim.org.il/en/itim-guide-to-burying-a-loved-one-in-israel/

The Development of Death in Judaism

Nadene Goldfoot                                                    

I'm standing at my paternal grandmother,
Zlata "Hattie" Jermulowske Goldfoot's grave in Portland, Oregon.
We leave pebbles by her tombstone.  Hebrew writing is
on the other side of her stone.    

The Torah first mentions death as "going to our fathers."  Since the Torah first talks about Adam and Eve, and such people as Abraham, this is the early Hebrew thought going back more than 3,000 years ago.  It was a very scientific outlook without any additional add-ons, because they knew this is what happened to one's fathers.  A premature death was looked upon as a terrible misfortune, such as a small child dying, as indeed it was.  A blessing pronounce over people was that they would live till a ripe old age.  Moses lived till 120, so our blessing said today is that you live till 120.  In doing a toast, we say, L'Chaim! (To Life!)  Life is the best of all possibilities.  We are here on this earth to care for all life.   Becoming a doctor is the best thing our children can become; "My son, the doctor!"  
                                                  

Jewish people cherish life.  The Torah was given to ISRAEL SO THAT "YOU SHALL LIVE" BY THE TEACHINGS, AND NOT
DIE THROUGH THEM."  Death has no virtue since THE DEAD CANNOT PRAISE THE LORD"  (Psalms 115:17)   King Solomon said, "A good name is better than precious oil;  and the day of death than the day of one's birth."  This was said about a man who died a peaceful death  following a long life blessed with good health and vitality of mind and body; a life rich in good deeds.  

Then Sheol was developed, a place the dead were at in a questionable existence. It's location was far below the earth, looked upon more as the dwelling of the wicked with later writers.   The dead were also considered to have certain psychic powers.

Sheol (/ˈʃiːoʊl/ SHEE-ohl, /-əl/; Hebrew: שְׁאוֹל‎ Šəʾōl Aramaic: ܫܝܘܠ), in the Hebrew Bible, is a place of darkness to which the dead go. Under some circumstances they are thought to be able to be contacted by the living. Sheol is also called Hades.

"While the Hebrew Bible describes Sheol as the permanent place of the dead, in the Second Temple period (roughly 500 BC – 70 AD) Sheol is considered to be the home of the dead wicked, while paradise is the home of the dead righteous until the Last Judgement (e.g. 1 Enoch 22; Luke 16:19-31). In some texts, Sheol was considered a place of punishment, meant for the wicked dead, and is equated with Gehenna in the Talmud. When the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek in ancient Alexandria around 200 BC, the word "Hades" (the Greek underworld) was substituted for Sheol."

Soul:  Our Nephesh, ruah, neshamah, all understand life as the animation of the body and is connected to breath.  After death there is merely a shadowy existence in the underworld (sheol)  Only in the last centuries  CE did the soul-body dualism and the concept that the soul was an independent substance joined to the body gain general credence;  the soul originates in heaven and descends to earth, joining a material body at the moment of conception or birth and losing its original perfection.  this dichotomy, fully developed in hellenistic literature, is also accepted by the Talmud where it is said that all souls exist from the creation of the world and are stored in heaven until their time comes to join the bodies destined for them.  The rabbis do not merely equate soul and body with good and evil;  it is always the soul which sins and not the body.  Maimonides and other Jewish Aristotelians assumed that only that part of the soul which man develops by his intellectual efforts is immortal;  other thinkers defined the soul in such a way as to extend immortality also to non-philosophers.  

Kabbalists generally accepted the belief in Metempsychosis (gilgul).  The desire to express one's  love for departed souls and if possible, to improve their lot in the hereafter has given rise to a large extent under non-Jewish influence to various rites, some of which such as Yizkor and Kaddish, have become permanent features of the synagogue service.  Somewhere I read that when the living are doing something worthwhile, this raises the station of where their parent is in sheol.  Our acts reflect on our parents, even in their death.                                                  

headstone of a Cohen, with the hands on top,
sign of the Cohen (descendants of Aaron, brother of Moses)

In later Hebrew thoughts on death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind,  death came to be considered a prime evil;  at the end of days, death would cease and all the dead would rise.  These developments all occurred before 70 CE.                                                 

The thoughts on Resurrection became a fundamental doctrine of Pharisaic Judaism.  Remember, there were the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  They were the Jewish political and Religious parties during the 2nd Temple period (c 580 BCE and on). At the same time, the Sadducees had absolute control over the Temple.  Their differences were somewhat like the Democrats and Republicans of today, with a lot of antagonism, but with Jews then due possibly to differences  in basic social differences. 
                                                      

Resurrection is the belief that that at the end of time, the bodies of the dead would rise from their graves.  It was a philosophy adopted by post-exilic Judaism, particularly by the Pharisees, although rejected by the Sadducees.  The Talmud teaches belief in resurrection as a fundamental of the Jewish faith, and Maimonides incorporated it into his 13 Principles of Faith, so it did not come from Moses's laws.  The denial of Resurrection was generally considered as heresy until the modern period when various Reform prayer books substituted phrases like "eternal life" for the earlier references to resurrection.  Although belief in resurrection seems to contradict belief in Immortality, the 2 views were combined in Jewish as well as  in Christian and Muslim orthodoxy.  
                                                     

Traditional Jews believe that during the Messianic Age, the temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem, the Jewish people ingathered from the far corners of the earth and the bodies of the dead will be brought back to life and reunited with their souls. It is not entirely clear whether only Jews, or all people, are expected to be resurrected at this time. 

This belief — distinct from, though connected to, the belief in the immortality of the soul — is mentioned explicitly only twice in the Hebrew Bible, in the books of Isaiah and Daniel, though hints of it are extrapolated from other biblical sources. 

  Pharisees admitted Divine predestination with man's responsibility for his deeds; life after death, the resurrection of the dead, the advent of the Messiah, and the Day of Judgement.  Not all Pharisees lived up to their high principles, and the Talmud itself lists 7 hypocritical types;  nevertheless, in reality they were far removed from the demogatory New Testament picture.   

Pharisaism was responsible for strengthening morality and introducing elasticity which enabled Judaism to withstand its subsequent tribulations.  The movement was continued in the stream of historic Judaism of which we now have 3 basic avenues to walk upon;  Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Judaism.  

The Sadducees were more scientific in their theories;  no belief in a future world, resurrection, or the immortality of the soul and also rejected the evidence given of angels and spirits.  They stuck with Moses's written law so much that they would behave severely if it was broken.  Their interpretation was more literal causing severe punishments.
                                                     

Neveh Shalom Synagogue with 10 Commandments 

 The classical liturgy reiterates faith in G-d as the "REVIVER OF THE DEAD."  Death came to the world, according to the rabbis, because of sin;  either that of Adam, from which mankind still suffers, or else personal sin.  Various rabbinic legends convey a belief that the dead carry on some connection with the living and even take an interest in their affairs.  The practice of praying for the intercession of the dead is considered by the rabbis as of early origin.                      

 The last act of the dying Jew is the recitation of the Shema. It is read from right to left, starting with the word, Shema. 

Then the body of the deceased is washed by a certain group of people prepared to do this, and the body is watched until it is placed in the earth so that no harm will come to it.  Burial is done within 24 hours (or as quickly as humanly possible) and is to be conducted with simplicity. 
 We never were to find out where Moses was buried, and that's the way he wanted it.   
You will find Jewish people involved in what's happening now with people who are living, and not with what happens to us after we die.  That's the unknown to us, and we have faith in G-d enough not to worry about it.  More so, we worry about doing the right things while living, for afterwards we are in G-d's hands.  L'Chaim!  

The world we live in is viewed as a corridor that leads to still another world.  The belief in an afterlife, in a world to come (Olam Haba) where man is judged and where his soul continues to flourish is imbedded in Jewish thought.  "All Israel have a share in the world to come."  But the worthier the individual, the greater is his loss to the living.  The more he meant to those about him;  family, friends, community, the deeper the grief and sharper the anguish.  Observances surrounding death and mourning address themselves to maintain the dignity of the deceased and to comforting the pain of the mourners.  

To accompany the dead to their final resting place is considered a high religious obligation.  Kindness performed for the dead must in the nature of the case be sincere.  The dead cannot reciprocate.  In the rabbinic view, respect for the dead is incumbent upon the living for the same reason that the rich are obliged to help the poor.  There is none so helpless as a dead man.  "He that mocketh the poor blasphemeth his Maker."  Judaism does not approve of expensive funerals.  Many a Rabbi has argued that if a family has money to spare, a better way of honoring the dead is to donate a sum of money in the name of the departed to some worthy cause.  

1. Bury within 24 hours.
2. No burial on Saturday (Shabbat).
3. Tear a place on a piece of your clothing to express grief
4. Sit (Shiva) 7 day period for father, mother, wife, husband, children, siblings; time period of no shaving or cosmetics, sex
5. Shloshim period (30 days period) no parties, marriage, shaving or haircuts, ; ends mourning for all but mother or father. 
6. Avelut (12 month period) no joyous events.  Kaddish is said daily by sons for 11 months)  
7.  If a Kohen male, under different rules:  no physical contact with dead or being in same room with corpse, of 6 feet from grave with exception for close relatives; parents, children, siblings.  
                                              

From Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur, our holiest of holidays that come in Autumn, we are aware that our names will go down in the Book of Life, life for another year.  We hope ours will be there, so we will try harder this coming year to be very good.   
Reincarnation was adopted by the Karaites in the 8th century possibly under the influence of Islamic mysticism.  The earliest in Judaism appeared in Saadiah Gaon's Emunot ve-Deot.  He refuted others' proofs.  Then along came the Kabbalists who did believe in the transmigration of souls.  The Zohar refers to the doctrine, and so does Nahmanides.  The later Kabbalah is full of the belief in the transmigration of souls.  Various sins are punished by transmigration, ie the soul  of the proud man entering the body of a bee until atonement is attained.  The heroes of the Bible and later Jewish history heroes are said to be the reincarnation of earlier heroes.  

Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
To Be a Jew-a guide to Jewish observance in Contemporary Life by Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheol
What Does Judaism Say About...?  Louis Jacobs
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jewish-resurrection-of-the-dead/

Death As Viewed in Judaism

Nadene Goldfoot                                                              

Life is valued the highest in Judaism.  We all come from one person, our mother, and taking a life is like destroying the entire world.  Saving a life is like saving the whole world.  It is considered the highest mitzva, or good deed.

Therefore, when one hears that a beloved friend dies after you try to talk them out of it, one feels the heartbreak.  You know that in a sane mind, your friend would never do such a thing, and only through great despair and utter depression has this happened;  a whole world has been shattered.

Because life is so valuable, we are not permitted to do anything to bring death upon ourselves or others, even to prevent suffering.  We are not permitted to use euthanasia, suicide or assisted suicide as this is strickly forbidden by Jewish law.  The Talmud even tells us that we cannot move a dying person's arms if that would shorten his life.  However, if the friend is suffering, and you know death will come naturally soon, his life does not need artificial prolonging.  We may "pull the plug" or refuse extraordinary means of prolonging a life in these cases.

When a person dies, the soul must have time purifying itself before it can enter the World to Come.  This purification period takes at the most, twelve months which would be the length of time for the most evil of us.  We do not want to imply that our parent was an evil person, so twelve months of reciting Kaddish is not used, and instead eleven months is enough.  If the parents of the deceased are also deceased, then another close relative may recite the Kaddish for them.

Death is not looked on as a tragedy, but as a natural process.  This comes as all part of G-d's plan.  We do have a firm belief in afterlife, a world to come.  There, people who have lived a worthy life will be rewarded.

Mourning practices are detailed but not out of fear or distaste for death.  The steps taken are to show respect for the dead called kavod ha-met, and to comfort the living, nihum avelim, who will certainly miss the departed.

We realize that we can break almost any of our 613 Jewish laws to save a human life, because the most important job we have is to sustain life.
                                                                     

                                                                     

We should mark a grave with a tombstone which are traditionally unveiled 12 months after burial.  A person is to be buried within 24 hours after death.  A person does not have any blood extracted from his body.  He or she is washed by a group of tending Jews who will watch over the body.  These Shomerim are watching and sit with the body until burial.  When a person dies, the eyes are to be closed and the body is laid on the floor and covered.  Candles are placed next to them and lit.

Cremation  has not been the acceptable method of dealing with the deceased.  A person is buried in the earth.  A coffin is not required, but usually a wooden one is used in the United States.  In Israel, where wood is so hard to come by, they are buried in their shroud.  A wooden casket has holes drilled in them so the body does come in contact with the earth.

If a parent, sibling, spouse or child hears of a death, it is traditional that they show their sorrow by tearing one's clothing over their heart if  a parent, or on the right side of the chest for others.  Then they say a blessiing describing G-d as the true Judge and an acceptance of G-d's taking of the life of the dear one.

Open casket funerals are not the tradition in a Jewish death.  This is forbidden.  After the burial, a close relative or friend has everyone to their home for the first meal for the mourners, the se'udat havra'ah.  Traditionally, it will be hard boiled eggs as this is a symbol of life and bread.  The meal is for the family only, not for visitors and after this time, condolence calls can be made.

After this comes the time of seven shiva days, where the family sits shiva.  They gather in the deceased's home on the day of burial and continues until the morning of the seventh day after burial.  The mourners may sit on low stools or the floor instead of chairs.  They should not wear leather shoes or shave or cut their nair during this period.  The women will not wear make-up, and work is not done.  The will not do anything of pleasure, even showering or bathing, have sex, wear fresh clothing or study Torah.  They will wear the clothes that they tore at the time of hearing about the death or at the funeral.  Mirrors in the home are to be covered.  Ten people are needed for certain prayers that are to be said.  Condolence calls are made to the home of the mourner but speaking is not necessary. They expected you and are grateful for your attendance.  When you visit a mourner, you usually say, "May the Lord comfort you with all the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem."

Following the time of shiva is a 30 day period called shloshim (30).  This period is a time of not attending any parties or celebrations, cutting hair or listening to music.  It is the time from the burial to the 30th day.

Avelut is the final period of mourning with is only for parents mourning their child which lasts for twelve months after a burial.  They are to avoid parties, celebrations, theater and concerts.  It lasts for eleven months starting at the time of burial.  The son of the deceased recites the Kaddish every day during this period.  The Kaddish, said in Hebrew, is "May His great Name grow exalted and sanctified in the world that He created as He willed.  May He give reign to His kingship in your lifetimes and in your day...."and continues in much that way.  The real mourner's prayer is El Molai Rachamim, which is recited at the grave.

When someone dies, it is a great loss to those who knew this person.  The mourner stands up every day in front of 10 people, the minyan, and reaffirms their faith in G-d  even though they have suffered this great loss.  This insures the person mourned in the eyes of G-d because it shows that he or she raised their children to have such strong faith at a time of their greatest loss.

In Israel I attended the tombstone unveiling of my friend's parent.  After the ceremony, she had us come to her car in the cemetery where she gave us all a piece of cake.  That seemed to be a new tradition that was very nice.

Resource:  http://www.jewfaq.org/death.htm

Do We Jews Believe in Hell?

Nadene Goldfoot
I've been watching the History channel with their "Gates of Hell"  program and know that we Jews do not believe in such a place.  We have several opinions about the Hereafter and what happens to us when we die.

We have books such as the Bible or Old Testament, as Christians refer to it, which we call the Tanach, which includes the Torah, Prophets, writings of the 24 books of the Bible.  Then we have the Talmud, which can be a set of  21 thick books 18 " tall or printed into one book.  In this, the information about the hereafter speaks in metaphors and parables.  Gehenna is the word for hell.  This is where sinners roast for their misdeeds and is Gai Hinom, the Valley of Hinom, which is a small ravine in Jerusalem where idolaters used to burn their children in sacrifice to Moloch.  I can see why Moses and then Joshua were told to enter Canaan and take the land.  The Canaanites' end had come since they were sacrificing humans.  Anyone can see "Gehenna" today from a balcony room in the King David Hotel which overlooks the old city of Jerusalem.  This is where I met my 3rd cousin, Stanley Goldfoot when I made aliyah to Israel, in the dining room of this very stately hotel.

We believe that good people of all faiths have a share in the world to come.  We do not believe in everlasting damnation.  One view is that one year is enough punishment.  No Jewish teaching suggests punishment without end.

The world we live in is viewed as a hallway that leads to still another world.  The belief in an afterlife, in a world to come (Olam Ha ba) where man is judged and where his soul continues to flourish is in Jewish thought.  The belief is that all of Israel has a share in the world to come, and this is from the Mishna Sanhedrin 11:1, another  The Mishna became the cornerstone book for  the Gemara.  The Mishna and Gemara together make up the Talmud.  We read the Torah which is the teaching that tells man how to live.  It tells about every aspect of human life and how we should act and do in our human and social behavior, which can be applied even to today's life.

Judaism's regard for the Olam Ha Ba does not really believe in a Hell.  We had 2 thoughts about death.
1.  There would be a resurrection of the dead  When a man dies he is dead.  His soul is dead until after the Messiaic Age when it will be reunited with his body which is to be raised from the grave.  
2. The soul was immortal.  The body dies but the soul lives on forever after the death of the body.  Eventually the two combined and the story is that his soul lives on in Heaven until the time of resurrection when soul and body are reunited.  

Orthodox Judaism still accepts the combined beliefs.  There are prayers said for the soul of the departed and for the resurrection of the dead.  Reformed Judaism does not believe in the resurrection of the dead and only believes in the immortality of the soul.

Maimonides, our great teacher and physician,  also emphasized the spiritual bliss of the soul in the afterlife.  He did go along with the resurrection but felt it will only be a temporal one.  Eventually the resurrected will return to dust and the soul will remain immortal.  It is pointed out that the Greeks believed in the immortality of the soul. Reformed Judaism's Platform states thus:  "We reject, as ideas not rooted in Judaism, the beliefs both in bodily resurrection and in Gehinnom and Eden( Hell and Paradise) as abodes for everlasting punishment and reward."

Though nothing is said about a Hell, much is written about the goodness of where our soul will go.  "Better is one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world than the whole life of the world to come;  yet better is one hour of blissfulness of spirit in the world to come than the whole life of this world."  This life is a gift from God, but this world is also a world!  You can say that Judaism is a this-worldly and an other-worldly religion.  It's a paradox.

The Hereafter is spoken of as "day that is all Sabbath" and as the "Heavenly Academy" where the righteous are taught Torah by G-d himself.  The Hereafter is spiritual bliss.  G-d in His goodness wishes man to earn his spiritual bliss.  He is placed on earth where he has a choice of good and evil.  We choose good, hopefully and by doing so comes nearer to G-d.  then he can enjoy G-d for all eternity and enjoy him by right, a right earned by pursuing the good in his life.  Eternity is said to be outside time altogether.  Eternity is a state, not a place.  We could say that we become Heaven, not that we are going to Heaven.

The whole purpose of man's creation is to "earn his keep" in the Hereafter.  Luzzatto said that true perfection lies only in communion with G-d.  Only by "arduous" effort can we earn that good.  Only through the performance of G-d's will which we learn about in mitzvot (good deeds such as visiting the sick) which are the precepts of the Torah, are we to achieve the true life and to rejoice in it.

We do not embalm.  The blood of the deceased is part of himself which must also be buried and not discarded as waste.  We do not have an open casket.  We don't want to be on display and are more concerned with honor and respect for the deceased.  We do not cremate."for dust you are and to dust you shall return.  I hear that this is beginning to be allowed, though.  Perhaps this is with Reformed.  We bury as soon as possible, usually the very next day, but not on a Sabbath.  Judaism goes along with autopsies when necessary with rules about it.

The Jewish tradition cherishes life.  We don't dwell on what happens when we die.  The Torah was given to Israel so that "you shall live" by the teachings and "not dies through them."  The dead cannot praise the Lord, so death has no virtue.  We are nevertheless realistic about death.  "for dust you are and to dust shall you return, "but the spirit returns to G-d who gave it", "the end of man is death".  We shall all die.  We have the goal of growing up with a good name and departing with a good name.

"It is enough to know that there is no way at all for us in this world to know or comprehend the GREAT GOODNESS which the soul experiences in the world to come, for in this world we know only material pleasures and it is something we desire.  We can't compare the good of the soul in the world to come with the physical goods of food and drink in this world.  The GOOD  is great beyond all our understanding and incomparable beyond all our imagination."  I see that our religion accents the positive and underplays the negative aspects of the reward and punishment system. The idea is to keep on trying to be a good person.  It couldn't hurt!

One last thought.  We do have once a year Yom Kippur where we ask G-d to forgive us for our many sins.  Our lives are weighed on a balance scale.  Our good deeds hopefully outweigh the bad acts.  This is why we are to ask forgiveness from our family and friends  before Yom Kippur is over each year for whatever acts of ours might have hurt them. G-d will forgive transgressions against Himself, but will not forgive transgressions against our fellow man unless amends are made and forgiveness is first obtained from the wronged party.

I have a feeling that the GREAT GOOD we will meet will be a direct ratio to the good we did on earth.  The idea is to do as many mitzvot as possible in your life.  They reflect the will of G-d.  What are they, you say?  Kindness is a good broad term.  Hillel, a great sage said "What is hateful to you, do not do to others."  Rabbi Akiva said, "Love your neighbor as yourself."  Be merciful, modest and perform deeds of kindness, said  Rabbi Elazar ben Aroch.  We have the major 10 Commandments and know that there are 613 of them altogether.  It would help to know the first 10, at least.

Resource:  Book: This is My God:  by Herman Wouk page 134-142 pocket book edition 1959, Dell
Book: what does Judaism Say About...?  by Louis Jacobs page 158-164
Book:  To Be a Jew by Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin page 296- chapter 21 Death and Mourning