19
In this particular case R. Lau was upholding the UOR’s ruling. The latter’s ruling (viewable here) was based on Rema (EH 154:21), citing earlier authorities, who permits to withhold any aid to a “sarvan” (one refusing to grant a get) including circumcising or burying his children. Upon this precedent the UOR ruled that preventing the mother’s burial is ...
14
On chabad.org it says the following:
On the way out of the cemetery, it is customary to pull out some
grass, throw it back over the shoulder, and recite the passage below.
This symbolizes the Resurrection of the Dead in the era of Moshiach,
when the body will awaken and return from the dust of the earth, as it
is written, "And may they blossom out ...
14
You asked: Is this a Jewish minhag? If so, what is the source for it?
Yes. it is mentioned in the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 199:10 - סימן קצט - דין הקבורה ובית הקברות
"The custom - when leaving a cemetery - is to pluck some grass and throw it behind one's back, and say זָכוּר כִּי עָפָר אֲנָחְנוּ - remember that we are dust."
You asked: What does it mean?
...
14
There is a Jewish practice to tear one's clothes when in mourning. In recent times, it has become common for non-Orthodox Jews to tear a black ribbon pinned to their clothes rather than the clothes themselves in order to avoid damaging an article of clothing.
I am not sure whether using the ribbon satisfactorily fulfills the obligation according to the ...
12
This is a matter of dispute in the Mishna Oholos 2:2. Rabbi Eliezer says one quarter kav worth of ash does transmit impurity, whilst the Sages say it does not transmit impurity at all. Rambam (Hilchos Tumas Meis 3:9-10) rules like the Sages.
12
Although rabbinic literature has yet to discuss death on Mars, the issue of being wholly buried underground, and the various complications to that happening (e.g., state requirements for burial in a coffin, a corpse under water, a buried corpse with limbs above ground, etc.), have been discussed. My theoretical answer depends on the work of the Rambam, the ...
11
after the circumcision, the foreskin is buried (some prepare a dish with dirt in it to "bury" the foreskin immediately). Some bury it in earth that has a new tree planted in it as a symbolic connection but the operative point is respect and burial for the body part.
cf Do surgically removed body parts require Kevurah?
the comments on the question which ...
11
See Yoreh Deah 362 Pischei Teshuva #1 were it seems amputated organs need not be buried, but consult your LOR (local orthodox Rabbi).
Also see Kesuvos 20b where the custom is to bury amputated organs.
11
The Torah itself says (Ex. 22:30) that the meat of an animal that is tereifah (fatally injured) should be "thrown to the dogs." Now, granted, the animal wasn't necessarily a pet when it was alive (whether anyone back then kept pets is pretty uncertain anyway), but you had the obligation to feed it before yourself (Berachos 40a based on Deut. 11:15), and you ...
10
The Rabbis at the time ruled that since the dead could not be moved from the Old City they should be moved into a temporary grave until an opportunity would allow them to be re-interned on the Mount of Olives. Unfortunately that took another 19 years to happen.
.. in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem some 40 fighters and others who were ...
10
This is a huge mitzvah, so yashar koach for participating!
Certain people are not supposed to participate in this mitzvah. Ask your Rabbi to make sure you aren't one of them.
Some things to consider:
You will be dealing with a lot of water, some of which will be spilling onto the floor. Consider wearing galoshes or boots, or at least an old pair of ...
10
The basic source is Deuteronomy 21:23, "You shall bury him on that day." (Whether it also applies to non-Jews is not so simple. The Ramban there mentions that Joshua took care to bury the bodies of the Canaanite kings (Joshua 10:27), though he says maybe that was more so as not to contaminate the land of Israel. Another relevant source is the long ...
10
Shulchan Oruch Yorei Deyoh 362 (1) says
הנותן מתו בארון ולא קברו בקרקע עובר משום מלין את המת. ואם נתנו בארון
וקברו בקרקע אינו עובר עליו, ומכל מקום יפה לקברו בקרקע ממש אפילו בחוצה
לארץ.
Someone who puts his deceased relative in a coffin and does not bury
it in the ground transgresses the prohibition of delaying burial. If
he put the relative ...
10
Yes above-ground burial is halachically acceptable if done properly.
For instance Israel suffers a lack of enough burial space and has developed a number of high-capacity above-ground "burial buildings". To respect the halachic requirement to be buried in earth (see this other answer), these buildings are built with vertical building columns filled with ...
9
Some base the Kadish for the soul on the date of death. Others say it goes from the date of the burial (See Pnei Baruch 34:9). The amount of time a soul should have the kadish is the 12 months of geihinom. The minhag is to retract this to 11 months so that it doesn't appear as if the son is assuming his parent needed geihinom (Rema YD 276:4). I have ...
9
The Shulchan Aruch (YD 345:3) writes:
קטן המאבד עצמו לדעת, חשוב כשלא לדעת
A minor who knowledgeably destroys himself is considered as if it was not done knowledgeably
so it seems we would treat it like any other regular case of death.
9
Out of respect for the deceased, we do not put bodies on display. Even the mourners (the immediate family) only look long enough to confirm identity. As Dr. Ron Wolfson writes at My Jewish Learning: "The deceased is a [nireh v'ayno roeh], someone who is seen but who cannot see. To open the casket and allow people to look at the deceased is to turn the ...
9
Based on a shiur by Rav Amnon Bazak at Yeshivat Har Etzion quoting the Arugas Habosem the amount paid by Avraham was enough to buy 2.4 million square Amos.
In an extraordinary piece of arithmetic computation, the Arugat
Ha-bosem proves that 400 shekel - the price of sdei ha-machpela - was
enough to buy 2.4 million square amot, based on the price of ...
9
The Yerushalmi (Nazir 9:3) records that the standard way of burying people is with their legs extended and their hands over their hearts. Elsewhere (Kilayim 9:3) it records how R Yirmeya asked to be laid on his side, as if ready to awake and greet the Mashiach, in his grave. The Bavli (BB 74a) describes how the Jews who died while wandering the desert for 40 ...
8
The Rambam (Hil. Avel, 4:4) presents this custom as halacha, and he is followed by many other rishonim including the Rokeach (Hil. Aveilus, 313), Sefer HaAgudah (B'rachos, Chapter 9), Kol Bo (§ 114), and the Ramban (Toras HaAdam, Sha'ar HaSof, Inyan HaHotza'ah).
This custom is also presented by such later authorities as the Beit Yosef (YD 376) and, more ...
8
Rambam Laws of Tefilin, Mezuzah, and Sefer Torah 1:13:
יג ספר תורה תפילין ומזוזות שכתבן מין, יישרפו. כתבן גוי, או ישראל משומד, או מוסר, או עבד, או אישה, או קטן--הרי אלו פסולין וייגנזו: שנאמר "וקשרתם . . . וכתבתם" (דברים ו,ח-ט; דברים יא,יח-כ)--כל שמוזהר על הקשירה ומאמין בה, הוא שכותב. נמצאו ביד מין ואין ידוע מי כתבן, ייגנזו; נמצאו ביד גוי, כשרים. ואין ...
8
There is no religious requirement in Judaism for a non-Jewish man to wear a head covering. However, since a public request was made, some attendees might feel that it is disrespectful or insensitive to appear without a head covering. As a practical concern, and out of sensitivity to the family, I would therefore recommend wearing a head covering. Either a ...
8
ABSOLUTELY NOT.
Recall that a Cohen -- even a Cohen Gadol -- is obligated to contact a dead body if that's the only way it will receive a proper burial -- this is known as meis mitzva.
So in your hypothetical scenario, the Cohen is now in a position whereby he is the only one who can ensure this corpse remains intact for proper burial. Hence, halacha ...
8
According to this article describing the burial of a Jewish police informer in Luban, Russia (who had presumably caused much suffering on the part of his fellow Jews), Rav Moshe Feinstein was of the opinion that "after death according to Jewish law a person doesn’t own his body and cannot leave orders about his body for after death. Therefore I say you need ...
7
The majority opinion follows Rabbi Yechezkel ben Yehuda Landau (1713 – 1793) opinion at Noda B’Yehuda I, Yoreh Deah (YD) 90, who holds that the mitzvah to bury separated body parts is required only of people who are dead, because it would be a disgrace not to. Rav Moshe Feinstein (1895-1986), however, held that even the body parts of living people must be ...
7
Chazal has said that if we begin a mitzvah that we cannot complete on our own, G-d will complete it for us. We could not part the waters at the Sea, alone, but we had to take the first step into the water. See, e.g. Rashi to Exodus 14:15. Moreover, we accept that as mortal humans, we may not be perfect, per se, but that if we make efforts to seek perfect ...
7
The reason that we keep 2 days on all festivals outside of Israel is because originally it was a doubt whether the new month had been declared, and word did not reach far enough for them to know by the middle of the month. Even once the calendar was set, they maintained the minhag of their predecessors (Beitza 4b).
The Ba'al HaMe'or to Beitza 5a explains ...
7
According to Rabbi Munk in his commentary on Vay'chi, it is because Esav was attempting to deny that he had sold his "birthright" completely. That is, he claimed that he had sold the "first born" rights and had sold the (future) settlement of the land of Canaan (to avoid the 400 years of slavery that was still ahead) but not the 50% share of the remaining ...
7
One does not tie a "permanent" knot on the tachrichim (burial clothes) in order to show that the death is not permanent. That is, the person will get up at techiyas hameisim (resurrection of the dead) after the mashiach comes. Additionally, the knots are this way so as not to hinder the dissolution of the tachrichim with the body. The chevra kadisha that I ...
7
R. Benet's son, R. Naftali, wrote in a letter (Misped Gadol Ve'kaved Meod, here) to the Nikolsburg community that his father died in Carlsbad while there for therapeutic reasons (ibid, note). He then goes on to report that his father asked that he be buried in Nikolsburg, his home town, or at least in Prague, however, the city authorities did not permit the ...
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