How Soon Must A Dead Person Be Buried According To Judaism And Why?

Dear JITC-

We just discovered that the Bibas bodies have been unburied for over a year. What does Jewish law say about when to bury a body and why is it this way?

Thanks,

Sharon

Dear Sharon,

Thanks for your question. Usually, when someone asks a question based on a current event, I explain the background. I’m not going to do that here because the whole Bibas situation is still too raw. I assume that current readers will be familiar with the situation and anyone who may stumble across this Q&A in the future can just Google it (or whatever people use in the future).

Generally speaking, Jewish law says that we should bury the deceased as quickly as possible; it’s considered disrespectful to the deceased to leave them unburied. We see this in action in a very surprising mitzvah. In parshas Ki Seitzei we read:

If a person commits a capital crime and is executed, and you hang (his corpse) on the gallows, his body shall not remain on the gallows overnight. Rather, you must bury him that day because a person that is hanged is an affront to God…. (Deuteronomy 21:22-23)

A convicted blasphemer or idolator was hanged after execution as a deterrent. Nevertheless, the Torah tells us that he may not be left hanging overnight. An executed offender was hanged close to sunset in order to fulfill the obligation to do so, then he was taken down immediately. This is because even a convicted felon deserves a decent burial.

Regarding the last part we cited above, that a hanged person is an affront to God, let us turn to Rashi. Rashi, the Bible commentator par excellence, explains that “an affront to God” means that a hanged person is degrading to God’s honor. This is because man was made in God’s image. Rashi cites a Talmudic parable (Sanhedrin 46b) about twin brothers who looked very much alike: one was a king and the other was a criminal. When the criminal was executed and hanged, it was degrading to the king because it appeared to onlookers as if that monarch were being hanged!

If a criminal convicted of and executed for a heinous crime deserves a speedy burial, it should go without saying that the same is true of innocent people.

The Talmud (Sotah 14a) tells us that the Torah starts with chesed – acts of kindness – and it ends with chesed. At the start of the Torah, God clothes Adam and Eve; at the end of the Torah, He buries Moshe. Not only is burying the dead considered a chesed, it is what’s referred to as “chesed shel emes” – “an act of true kindness.” This is because when you feed or clothe another person – or perform virtually any other act of kindness – the possibility exists that the other person might repay the favor someday. But when one person buries another, it’s an act of kindness done purely for its own sake since there’s no chance that the recipient might reciprocate.

Let’s go even one step further. A kohein (a descendant of Aaron, a Jewish “priest”) is not allowed to render himself spiritually unclean by attending a funeral except for one of his seven close relatives: mother, father, unmarried sister, brother, son, daughter, and wife. The Kohein Gadol (“High Priest”) couldn’t even allow himself to be rendered unclean for a close relative.

But… there’s a mitzvah to bury someone who has no one else to do so. If a kohein – even the Kohein Gadol – finds an unburied body, he has an obligation to render himself unclean in order to bury the deceased.

Consider that! If the Kohein Gadol lost a parent, a sibling or, God forbid, a child, he couldn’t attend the funeral – that’s how important his ritual purity is! Even so, if he finds an unburied body, he has an obligation to bury it – that’s how important burial is!

One more (less-than-fun) fact: There are four blessings in Birkas Hamazon (grace after meals, or “bentching”). The first three are Biblical in nature but the fourth was added by the Sages. That fourth blessing is HaTov v’haMeitiv, that God “is good and does good.” Let’s give some context to this blessing.

In the year 135, the Romans eradicated the city of Beitar. The Romans, however, did not allow the bodies of those slain to be buried. (Sound familiar?) This bracha was instituted several years later, after the bodies were permitted to be buried. The massacre still happened, but the burial itself – delayed though it may have been – was still a chesed to the deceased.

We see that a speedy burial is important, but that’s not to say that there isn’t any flexibility. It is actually permitted to delay a burial when doing so is for the honor of the deceased. This includes such reasons as acquiring a coffin or burial shrouds, waiting for relatives or eulogists to arrive, and identifying the deceased.

So, a timely burial is extremely important in Judaism – so much so that even the Kohein Gadol had to render himself ritually impure for the sake of the deceased. While other religions may not bury as quickly as we do, the way the Bibas family was treated is unacceptable by any standard.

Sincerely yours,

Rabbi Jack Abramowitz, JITC Educational Correspondent

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