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,
In the previous segment I discussed the obligation of Burial. In this segment I’ll discuss the prohibition against cremation.
In Judaism, burning of the human body is considered a disgrace. Regarding the execution of the wicked Achan and his sons and daughters the verse states: “And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them in the fire….So G‑d rescinded His anger” (Josh. 7:25). Similarly, the righteous King Yoshiyahu “executed the priests of idol worship upon their altars and burned their bones upon them” (2 Kings 23:20). The Talmud (Sanhedrin 82a) relates how after the evil Yehoyakim suffered a “donkey’s burial”, his skull was eventually found and degradingly burnt. Burning the human body is so disgraceful that G‑d declared, “I will not turn away [Moav’s] punishment, because he burned the bones of the King of Edom into lime” (Amos 2:1).
Not only is burning the body a disgrace, it is explicitly forbidden. The Talmud (Temurah 34a) asserts, “Anything that requires burial [Rashi: including a dead body] shall not be burned”. Further, our Sages noted “one who says ‘burn me [after death] and give my field to a certain person’, the field may not have to be given” since it is forbidden to cremate him in the first place (Yerushalmi, Ketuvot 11:2, Korban HaEida). Therefore, one who is intentionally cremated not only uproots a positive Torah requirement to bury, and transgresses a negative Torah prohibition of leaving a body unburied as we explained last segment, but also transgresses a prohibition against cremation. In addition, just as the soul suffers great agony when its departure from the body is unnecessarily prolonged (as when the body is put in a mausoleum), so too the soul suffers tremendously from the extremely abrupt process of cremation.
Furthermore, one who has his body cremated will not merit resurrection – a fundamental belief of Judaism expressed in Rambam’s 13 Principles of Faith: “I believe with complete faith that there will be a resurrection of the dead, when the wish emanates from the Creator”. One explanation may be as follows: Our sources describe an extremely hard “luz” bone from which a buried body is reconstituted (Bereishit Raba 28:3; Tosafot, Baba Kama 16b; Caf HaChaim, O.H. 300). Even though this bone is not destroyed by fire, cremation may burn the life-potential out of the rest of the body such that the burnt remains aren’t revitalized via the luz. The Gesher HaChaim (1:16:9; 2:13) illustrates this with an analogy – while a planted seed fully rots and even provides nutrient for the sprout, a burnt seed doesn’t even sprout.
There are two interesting exceptions. After the inhabitants of Yavesh Gilad learned that the Philistines hanged the bodies of Saul and his sons to the wall of Beit Sha’an, they “walked all night, and took the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beit Sha’an, and they came to Yavesh and burnt them there. And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Yavesh” (I Samuel 31:12-13). Rabbi David Kimchi (Radak) comments “although some explain that Saul and his sons were not literally burnt, but rather fires or incense were lit in their honor, it is more likely that [by the time the bodies were found] the flesh had become infested and it would be a dishonor to bury them as such, so they burned the flesh and then buried the bones”. Nevertheless, the hasty manner in which Saul was buried (2 Samuel 21:1) was later a cause of a three year famine (Rashi; Yevamot 78b).
Another exception is in the prophecy of Amos, “And it shall come to pass if there remain ten men in one house [who hid and were saved from the sword], they shall die [by plague]. And a man’s ‘dodo u’masarfo’, shall take him up to bring the bones out of the house” (Amos 6:10). Some explain dodo to mean “his paternal uncle” and masarfo to mean “his maternal uncle”, i.e. one’s relatives will take him to burial (Rabbi Yehuda ibn Karesh in Ibn Ezra). However, while Radak explains dodo as uncle, he explains masarfo as “he that burns him”, meaning as a result of the plague, one’s relative will have to come and burn the flesh of his kin before removing the bones from the house for burial in order to prevent an epidemic.
In conclusion, aside from extreme exceptions, cremation is absolutely forbidden, causes the soul great pain and bars it from resurrection. And more, regarding one who chose cremation, his relatives do not sit shiva, do not say kaddish, are not required to bury the remains, and even if the remains are buried, they are not buried in a Jewish cemetery.
Sources:
- Beit Yitzchak, Yoreh Deah 2, 155
- Achiezer 3, 72:4
- Iggrot Moshe 3, 143
