Why Bury?

A three-part argument against an increasing trend, even among Jews, towards cremation instead of burial.


Reprinted with permission from Wrestling with the Angel: Jewish Insights on Death and Mourning, Jack Riemer ed. (published by Schocken Books).

A new trend has developed in recent years among non-Jews, and then, because Jews live in the midst of a non-Jewish culture, among Jews too. It is the tendency to cremate instead of to bury.

jewish burialWhat is behind this trend? Perhaps the main motivation is that cremation is much cheaper; there is no casket to purchase, no grave to choose. But people are reluctant to give such a crass reas­on and so they offer nobler-sounding explanations. They tell you that there will eventually be a shortage of space in the world and so it is better not to have cemeteries. They tell you that cremation is quick and simple and less painful than burial in the earth.

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.

First: theology. 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, 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.

Second: memory. It is hard to comprehend how in this gener­ation, which is just one removed from the time of the Holocaust, we can think of burning a body. Millions of our people were cre­mated in the death camps, and so cremation conjures up for us, the horror of that time when Jewish bodies were treated as worthless.

Third: concern for the welfare of the mourner. Burial helps the mourner by providing a sense of closure. When the mourner sees the coffin being lowered into the earth and when he hears the sound of pebbles and soil hitting the coffin, it hurts terribly, but from that moment on he knows that death is real.


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Rabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz has served as the rabbi of Congregation B'nai Israel in Tustin, California for more than a decade and is a member of the Rabbinical Assembly Committee of Law and Standards. He is the author of many articles dealing with spirituality and Jewish law, and teaches the philosophy of Jewish law at the University of Judaism.
