Manufactured concrete airtight "tubs" ready to be assembled for graves
The trend for many years in Eretz Yisroel has been to bury people in manmade structures, above ground and now even below ground. Cemeteries in Israel are beginning to resemble residential neighborhoods with high rising concrete structures of many floors. The bodies are placed in on concrete cells, sometimes with a little bit of earth sprinkled inside. In some places the bodies are surrounded in a container polystyrene foam (known in Hebrew as kalkar).
As will be clarified: According to leading poskim, this arrangement does not constitute burial, which needs to be in the ground. Therefore, those who are buried this way are not buried in Eretz Yisroel!
We recently discussed the situation with two leading rabbonim: HaRav Eliyahu Schlesinger and HaRav Baruch Shraga.
At the left is reporter Binyomin Rabinowitz. In the middle is HaRav Baruch Shraga. At the right is HaRav Eliyahu Schlesinger.
You have been involved in the use of burial for many years, dating back to HaRav Eliashiv who was extremely adamant and unequivocal in his opposition to all kinds of burial which violate the burial traditions of our people for many centuries. If in the past, the irregularities were marginal, in recent years they have become more widespread, with the situation only becoming increasingly severe. These irregularities include burial in multi-storied structures, grave niches, tunnels, cuchim, burial in Styrofoam. What is even worse is the fact that many rabbonim and famous askonim have publicized things in the name of accepted authorities such as HaRav Ovadia Yosef and additional poskim, as if to say that these forms of burial are acceptable. We have seen this in actuality and woe is the fact that the public is not aware of this. How can we make the public more informed?
HaRav Shraga: There are several types of burial. There are concrete niches which are not really considered burial at all. Of those niftarim who are put into such containers it can be said clearly: They were not buried! Concrete is not a valid halachic grave. We have seen many of these burial niches (cuchim) in tunnels in which they put a bit of earth, but it is clearly less than 6 tefachim of earth [which is the minimal halachic requirement]. And even if they do put this amount of earth in, there is another problem. In Sanhedrin (46b) the gemara discusses whether the reason for the burial is atonement or shame. Rashi explains the atonement: That he will have atonement from the fact that they lower him and disgrace him underground. Those who are buried in the second or third stories or higher, do not have this atonement.
But some say that this was the ancient way of burial, known now as the burial of the Sanhedrin.
HaRav Shraga: One sees clearly that to enter all of the graves of the Sanhedrin (in Jerusalem) one has to literally go down. There are niches one on top of the other, but even the highest niche is not higher than the surrounding ground, but below ground. This is perfectly in accord with the explanation of Rashi and those who are buried above ground in high floors do not have this atonement.
And there is worse. I saw something that really shocked me. After they put the niftar into one of the niches, the close it with a slab of stone or polystyrene foam, and shut it closed with a little bit of glue or cement. According to the Ari z"l (Shaar Hamitzvos parshas Vayechi) it is important not to put up the matzeivah until after the shiva. By then all the klippot that grabbed onto the inner nefesh of the niftar at the time of his petiroh are pushed away. It says there, "Therefore we do not build the matzeivah during the shiva since then the klippot are still hanging on. If they do build the matzeivah within the shiva, a ruach tumah will settle onto the grave and it will become empowered there and will never leave. Therefore one must wait until the end of the shiva and then it is a mitzvah to build a tziyun on the grave as soon as possible."
What they do nowadays is that they close the niche with a slab right after the levaya, and this becomes the matzeivah. This causes great distress to the niftar, and it is not at all comparable to putting blocks in a regular grave. And even pouring concrete over the grave is not comparable to this. Because those traditional practices are under and inside the ground, and they become a part of the grave itself. But this cover on the niche is outside and external to the grave and this is a very serious problem. Some poskim say that one must destroy a matzeivah that was built during the shiva and make a new one. This is a problem not only for the concrete burial niches that are above the ground, but all the underground manmade caverns in Har Hamenuchos as well as for the niches that are carved out of the wall itself.
HaRav Eliahu Schlesinger: A Jew from chutz La'aretz asked me: What is preferable: Regular burial in chutz la'aretz or burial here on a high floor? I answered him that the basis of his question was the consideration that being buried here has the ma'alah of burial in Eretz Yisroel. But burial on a high floor is not being buried in Eretz Yisroel! Similarly a Jew from here asked me what is preferable: burial in another city as kevurat sadeh (the traditional Israeli burial), or burial in Yerushalayim on an above ground level? I answered that the basis of his question is that he wants the ma'alah of Yerushalayim, but burial on an above ground floor is not Yerushalayim.
A burial niche showing the thin layer of earth inside
We must be very clear. Maran HaRav Eliashiv zt"l was adamantly opposed to any change in traditional burial methods, that were in practice for hundreds of years. Just look at Har HaZeisim that has graves that are hundreds of years old. Is there even on double grave? Did it even occur to anyone to bury people that way? Therefore it is categorically to change the traditional ways.
Maran zt"l wrote about this in 5746 to the menahel of the Kehillas Yerushalayim Chevra Kadisha R' Shachna Rotem z"l. At the time there was a proposal to bury on above ground floors. According to the plan, there would be a structure of reinforced concrete and on each level there would be 1.5 meters of earth, that would be connected to virgin soil by a permanent shaft that would be filled with earth.
To this proposal Maran zt"l responded: In my opinion, aside from what Rashi says in Sanhedrin (46b) that the atonement of the burial is that "he has atonement by being lowered and debased under the ground." This implies that according to the explanation for burial that it is atonement, one must bury below ground level. Also this proposal to build several levels is a change from the minhag for burial that was followed up until now. See Shut Dudai Sadeh (30) that a minhag in connection with the deceased is more serious than other minhagim. And even though in chutz la'aretz in some cases they buried one on top of another, one certainly does not learn from the impossible to the possible, and there the authorities gave the Jews a very limited space for a cemetery and thus they were forced to bury one on top of another, but when there is another possibility one should certainly not change the burial methods and customs that were followed for generations, even if it will be necessary to make the cemetery far away from the city.
It is true that Maran zt"l did not write that it is not considered burial at all, but he did write that it does not fulfill the prescription for atonement which is one of the reasons cited in the gemara, as mentioned by HaRav Shraga. Also Maran was writing about the proposal for above ground burial in floors that would be filled with earth, and not to burial in concrete with a little dirt spread around, and not to niches that are actually prefabricated elsewhere as units that are assembled. This is certainly not according to halachah and is not considered burial at all.
There are several cases in which Maran ruled, in above ground floor and in niches, that they should take out the niftar and bury him according to halachah. There was a well-known case of a rabbi of a Jerusalem neighborhood. His sons were not present at the burial since in Yerushalayim sons do not melaveh, and those from the family who were present did not realize what happened since the burial was at the point that the structure comes out of the mountain itself, and they thought that the burial was in the earth of the mountain itself [but it was not]. In 5771 HaRav Eliashiv ruled that they should take him out and bury him properly, but they should do it secretly so as not to embarrass some of those there who were in fact buried properly. There was another case of a non-religious lady who was buried in a niche and who was told in advance that rabbonim permit it. Maran zt"l ruled that she should be taken out.
In a letter written in Adar 5772, by his talmid muvhak HaRav Dovid Morgenstern shlita about a man who was buried in an open field, but the field was built atop concrete vaults, it says:
"...in the matter of someone whose family agreed to pay extra in order to bury him according to all opinions, and this was appropriate for the niftar since all his life he was medakdek in mitzvos to fulfill all the opinions including the most stringent ones, and you agreed to pay extra for this burial and for a plot for his wife shtichye next to him.
"I asked more verabi shlita several times to clarify all the details of the question, and he said that according to the information in the question, if even part of the body of the niftar, even if it is only 10 cm or even less, rests on ground that has other graves beneath it, one should take the niftar out and bury him in a regular grave in the ground, as was done for generations in Yerushalayim. And certainly they cannot bury his wife next to him if it a place that has graves underneath it."
Another important issue is that it is known to he halochoh leMoshe muSinai that a tzaddik should not be buried next to a rasha. Many poskim wrote that if this was not followed one should take out the meis, and not only if he was buried next to a non-Jew but even if it was a Jew who was not shomer Torah and mitzvos. In all the burials in concrete niches there is this problem. Sometimes there are sofeik non-Jews and sometimes there are Jews who were not shomer Torah and mitzvos. And it was written in the name of Maran zt"l that the burial should not be within 4 amos, in any direction.
It is tragic that there are Jews who wrote in their will that they want to be buried in Eretz Yisrael and then they bring them here and bury them on the fifth floor.
In addition to all the issued we mentioned there is also the important problem that in the concrete containers the bodies do not decompose. The decomposition of the body is a big atonement for the departed, as discussed in Kabboloh works. They opened graves and found the bodies whole because being sealed in concrete it is like in a refrigerator.
HaRav It says in the mishnah (Ovos) Rabbi Levitas of Yavneh says, "One should be exceedingly humble because the hope of all men is worms." What does this mean? Should one look forward to worms? But it says in Iyov, "His flesh will be in pain." This means that as long as the flesh is not decomposed, there will be pain. The niftar will be in pain. When they bury like this it is like burying in a box.
The office of Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef told us: The hetter of the Chief Rabbinate given decades ago was only according to certain clear rules and the traditional minhagim must be observed. It is the Chief Rabbi's opinion that all that his father HaRav Ovadiah Yosef zt"l wrote should be followed as he related to burial. The methods of burial used today need fixing and every effort should be exerted to do so,
