Shalom! This is Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg of the Ezra-Habonim Niles Township Jewish Congregation of Skokie, Illinois. I want to talk to you about the Jewish theory and practice of funerals.
It is a very important subject in Judaism has much to teach about it. The two major principles of the Jewish funeral concept are dignity and equality. We do not believe on autopsies because unless they are medically necessary to help improve and save life because we do not want to hurt the dead body in more than necessary. For that same reason we do not have open caskets because we do not think the person, when they are dead, give anyone permission to look therein, all of us want to protect our privacy. No one likes to be seen first thing on the morning and so certainly a dead person does not feel like they look their best and so to respect the dead body in order to respect the live person, we do not want to view them unless it is absolutely necessary.
In addition, do not believe in embalming because we believe the bible says the Torah says, we come from the earth and we go to the earth and shall we should not slow down the process or expedite it. For the same reason, we do not believe in cremation—that is burning the body and it is expediting the process and we should let God take its course and nature take its course and the body decay naturally. In addition we do not like flowers on funerals because we do not think you should kill something else that God created in the world in order to honor something else that died, whether give the might to charity that should go a good cause.
Now when someone dies we believe in burial as quickly as possible. The bible teaches that even a person who was killed because of a capital crime should be buried right away. It is not dignified for the dead person to remain above the ground. So we liked to bury as quickly as possible but certainly we want the family to be able to come together and some time to take it there to for all of that to happen.
We also believe, the body should be washed lovingly by group of the same sex in order to do the ritual purification. We also think people should be buried in the same linen garments called tak riyahkeh, to represent the idea of equality. We like to have a plain a casket as possible. A plain white pine boxes preferred in order to have the idea of no as temptations spending but simplicity again.
The funeral itself is very short, it usually has some eulogy in order to bring comforting consolation to the family and it ends with a prayer called the yang may rahamim. It is become more common for family and members to speak with a certainly appropriate. And then for the burial, we also add a prayer called the mourners Kaddish. After the funeral, the family returns to the home for a meal of consolation. We do not believe in a wakes before, we have this meal of consolation after and so called shiva. With family sets traditionally seven days but in modern time sometimes shorter. And they received visitors there are services they recite the mourners Kaddish. And then for a month for all immediate mourners aside from parents if that would be a child, a spouse, or sibling, we basically refrain from entertainment, we save the Kaddish, we go to services and we slowly reenter life. For parent that period extends for 11 months.
Following the year, we observe the Hebrew date of the anniversary of the death of the loved one, by lighting a candle and going to synagogue three times and then a minion a prayer quorum reciting the mourners Kaddish and then four times a year we have yizkor. Where all people come to the synagogue at the end of major festivals—Yom Kippur, the last day of Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot and recite the yizkor prayers to remember all our deceased.
Well those are the basic customs and principles of the Jewish funeral. Equality, simplicity, respect for the dead body, so we can respect the live body. Hope this has been illuminating and elucidating and you can certainly find more information online or for more sources to help with this very important subject. God bless you.
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