Jewish Beliefs in life after death
There are roughly 6.5 million Jewish people in the United States right now. Although that may be only 2.5% of our population, it is 45% of the world Jewish population. In contrast to the dominant culture, Jewish burial practices are very different. Embalming is forbidden, and burial need to be within 24 hours of death, if it is possible. People of the Jewish faith need to be buried in a Jewish Cemetery in order to be resurrected and properly follow in Jewish tradition. There are many laws that need to be followed in order to be buried in a Jewish cemetery, laws that go against what we believe should be a “funeral” because of the natural and speedy process.
“A Jewish funeral is a sacred rite and should be invested with both dignity and simplicity as taught by Jewish tradition.” (Uscj.org). It is very important that when someone of the Jewish faith dies, they should be buried as soon as possible. Within 24 hours is preferable, but it may be extended if family needs to travel to get to the funeral, or if the body needs to be shipped to be buried (to Israel). The body is never to be left alone after the person has passed away. Jewish law allows organ donations because they are considered a mitzvah (good deed). Cremations and embalming are strictly against the rules, which includes make-up and dressing the body up. The body is buried in plain white shrouds and buried in a simple wooden box.
The significance of all of these practices is that by “preserving the integrity of the body” you keep it pure and ready for resurrection day. Jewish people have very open beliefs when it comes to what happens to the “soul” when the body dies. Some say that the soul stays in the body, others say it wanders the earth, others say that it joins up with other souls and waits for resurrection day. Personally I don’t believe that there are any “normal” ideas in religion, but I do believe that there is a small spectrum about what the general public views as normal. It is in my opinion that the general public believes that when a person dies, they should call the funeral home so they can come and cart off the body, the funeral home embalms it, and then you and your family come in to make speeches about the dead and who they were, all the while they sit in their coffin, looking still alive, just sleeping. Then they get buried in some beautiful coffin; meanwhile everyone is still crying and sad because this person is just so suddenly gone from their lives. In Judaism it is even quicker, it is similar to ripping off a band-aid, in which the dead is taken away and buried as fast as possible, you don’t get to see the body, and it is a very quick process to leave their integrity intact.
Again, as a personal belief, I don’t believe that there is any good way to deal with death; I don’t believe there is one process versus another that will make the grieving process easier. When someone leaves us, there can’t be one way that will make us feel that they are in a better place, because deep down inside us, we don’t believe that because they aren’t with us. The say “Home is where the head is” because we have a moral obligation to return to those who we truly do love. In the Jewish religion we believe that we need to bury the dead as quickly as possible because we believe that the quicker we bury them, the quicker their souls will return to us, and they will truly be happy, as will we. This isn’t a business about only pleasing the dead, because they are dead, this is an industry about catering to the living in a time of crisis. If we can make them happy while they are at their worst, then they will be much happier when they have had time to deal with what is actually going on. So no, I don’t feel any religion will ever be able to properly address this, but I do feel that if we can understand out own motives, then we can better understand why we believe so heavily in these religions.
Weissman, Alan. "Guide to Jewish Funeral Practice." uscj.org. United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, 2010. Web. 16 May 2011.
Klug, Lisa. "Jewish Funeral Customs: Saying Goodbye to a Loved One." jewishfederations.org. The Jewish Federations of North America, Inc, 2010. Web. 16 May 2011.
Sam,
ReplyDeleteI liked your blog because you had a really clear beginning that was interesting and had good points, which made reading the rest of your blog easy to read. One thing i found interesting about jewish faith is that it's more natural than christianity, for example things such as kosher. There's also some similarities between the two, for example they both believe that the dead will resurrect. I personally believe the reason people believe that is because its a way for people to cope with a death, by believing they'll come back, but there's a contradiction with that, all the people who believed that before they died and than they're relatives when they died kept believing that, meaning that many generations are due to resurrect. Other than that you had a great blog, good work.
- Rigel
Sam really great project. I found it to be both clear and concise.A all around insightful post, and I liked out you went in depth from a cultural perspective . One thing that stuck out to me was the length the Jewish faith goes into to try to preserve the body naturally. I liked how they choose not to embalm. In feels overall like a less industrialized process. Great work.
ReplyDeleteSam,
ReplyDeleteI liked your blog post because it was really interesting. I like how Jewish people want everything to be natural or "organic". It feels like a more traditional process that has probably been done the same way for a long time. I agree with you that there is no way to make the grieving process easier. I think that it is human nature to be sad when someone dies. It does not depend on religion or anything else. Great post!
Dean