Secrets from Beyond The Grave

donation has absolutely no influence upon the person's future resurrection. The Jewish Burial

In the Jewish tradition, there are two principle considerations at the time of death. The first involves kevod ha-met , or the treatment of the dead. This tradition enables the Jewish community to show "respect for the body of the deceased as the vessel which housed the soul in life."2 The second consideration is kevod ha-chai , the concern for the living.3 The Jewish process of burial during the time of Christ was to bury the person the same day that he or she died. The Jews bury the body without any form of cremation or embalming, believing the body must revert to its original state and return to the earth. To ease the anxiety of the family, the burial takes place promptly. In Jerusalem, the Orthodox community performs the funeral and burial the same day of death when possible. This is based upon the instruction from Deuteronomy 21:23: "You shall surely bury him that day." "His body shall not remain overnight." If it is not possible to bury the person on the same day, the burial must occur within three days unless circumstances do not permit. The body is wrapped in linen, a custom initiated nearly two thousand years ago by Rabbi Gamaliel to indicate that the rich and poor are equal before God. The shroud is a garment with seven layers made with muslin, cotton, and linen, with the outer garment (since the sixteenth century) being a large white sheet that the corpse is wrapped in. Shrouds have no pockets, which indicates that a man takes nothing with him into the afterlife. At the time of Christ, the body was laid in a cave-like structure with large niches cut inside to lay the body. After the decaying process, the corpse was unwrapped, and the bones were washed and placed in a small, stone-cut ossuary. These small boxes holding the bones were then laid inside the cave in one of the niches. The cave, called a sepulchre , became a family tomb for many generations and could hold numerous stone boxes that could be stacked one upon another in the cave-like opening. This is what Jesus referred to when He said to the Pharisees: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness" (Matt. 23:27). We read about a Jewish process of burial in the four Gospels, when Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus joined together to care for the body of Christ after His death. Nicodemus purchased one hundred pounds of linens and spices, wrapping the body of Christ in a linen death shroud and laying Him in a new tomb (John 19:38-42). At Christ's resurrection, His body slipped through the linen, and He left the cloth on the stone slab inside of the tomb (John 20:7). Thus, from the beginning, the traditional method of burial was to place the body in a tomb that was designed for the entire family's use for several generations. Later it was a custom to place the body in a coffin made of wood. The reason for wood, according to a Rabbi Levi, was based on the fact that Adam and Eve hid in the trees in the garden from the presence of the Lord (Gen. 3:8). Also, wood would eventually decay and return to the earth along with the body, as required in Genesis 3:19: "And to dust you shall return." Some individuals drill holes in the bottom of the coffin to allow air in to better assist in the decomposition of the body. Among some Jews a coffin is not used, since in a Jewish cemetery (as in Israel) the