From: Shirley in Denver
Dear Rabbi,
The Torah says that man must return to dust. Does this necessarily mean burial, or could cremation also be acceptable?
Dear Shirley,
Your question involves two issues, burial and cremation. In this segment I’ll discuss burial; in the next segment, Cremation.
The requirement to bury the dead is from the verse, “If a man committed a sin worthy of death…you shall surely bury him that day” (Deut. 21:23, based on Tur, Yoreh Deah 362). The verse you mentioned, “For you are dust and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19), teaches that ideally a buried body should be in contact with the ground (Beit Yosef from Ramban, Torat HaAdam p. 117). Upon death, the soul cannot fully depart until the body has completely disintegrated. On the other hand, an abrupt departure would cause the soul great agony. Burial ensures the gradual but eventual decay of the body needed to benefit the soul. Our Sages thus remarked (Sanhedrin 47a), “Burial is not for the sake of the living, but rather for the dead”.
Burial actually preceded the giving of the Torah. The Midrash (Tanchuma, Bereishit 10) relates that G‑d brought before Cain one bird burying another bird, from which he learned to bury Hevel. Similarly, all of the patriarchs and matriarchs were buried: “and his sons buried [Abraham]” (Gen. 25:9-10); “and [Isaac’s] sons buried him” (Gen. 35:29); “for his sons…buried [Jacob]” (50:13); “Abraham buried Sarah” (Gen. 23:19); “there they buried…Rebecca and…Leah” (Gen. 49:31); “and [Jacob] buried [Rachel] in…Beit Lechem” (Gen. 48:7).
Even Joseph who died in Egypt “took an oath of the children of Israel saying, G‑d will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here” (Gen. 50:25). Moses fulfilled the oath (Ex. 13:19) until eventually “the bones of Joseph…[were] buried in Shechem” (Joshua 24:32). Further, the Talmud (Sotah 14a) teaches that one of the ways a Jew imitates G‑d in performing acts of righteousness is by burying the dead, as G‑d did for Moses, “And He buried him in the valley in the land of Moav” (Deut. 34:6).
After the giving of the Torah, burial became obligatory. Counted as one of the 613 commandments of the Torah (Sefer HaMitzvot, aseh 231), anyone who prevents himself or others from being buried uproots a positive Torah requirement to bury, and also transgresses a negative Torah prohibition of leaving a body unburied (Rambam, Sanhedrin 15:8; Evel 12:1). In fact, the Talmud states (Sanhedrin 46b) that anyone who orders before his death that his body should not be buried, his order must be disregarded. This is fixed in the halacha, and the desire of the deceased is not honored when he wills something other than burial (Rambam, Evel 12.1; Sh. A., Y.D. 348:3).
