The terrible and dreadful scene which was discovered three months ago near the section of the above ground graves on Har Hamenuchos shocked all those who drove along the nearby road which was flooded with large amounts of secretions and liquids from the deceased brought for burial in the section of cave compartments belonging to the Sephardi and Oriental extraction communities. The situation aroused a public hue and cry in the hope that the problem would be addressed completely but recently, this happened again after recent rains, not only in the aforementioned sections but also in the compartment burial section of the Kehillas Yerushalayim Chevra Kadisha, and in additional areas of the abovementioned Chevrot Kadisha on Rechov Derech Hachessed. This horrendous desecration of the deceased continues unabated on Har Hamenuchos.
The burial structure of the Ashkenazic Kehillas Yerushalaim, with a closeup showing the scandalous
flow of body fluids.
Yated Ne'eman has conducted a resolute battle against all the innovative initiatives which are counter to traditional burial customs. A series of articles began as a response to the outlandish initiative of gathering bones so as to save on burial ground. A special meeting was called by the Minhal Hatichnun planning administration, the body authorizing the allotment of burial places in Israel. But thanks to the publicity, this initiative was canceled. Nonetheless, it highlighted the severity of the situation existing today on the subject of burial.
Let it then be known categorically that burial in shelves and structures are against the Halacha. Burial in the ground is not a just a hiddur, but is the basic halachic requirement. Our latter rabbonim have emphatically established that any other form is not considered burial at all. In any case, other forms of burial that are not below ground do not provide a kaporoh atonement which is one of the reasons for burial as stated in Sanhedrin 46b.
If in the past multi-story burial was practiced in Gush Dan, Jerusalem and Haifa, in recent times, one rabbi is working on spreading this mode of burial to the entire country to which end he has been publicizing his so-called halachic rulings with fictitious quotes from our gedolei Torah and Halacha, as if to say that they allowed other forms of burial which are not considered real burial, such as coffins stored above ground. Any other forms, if at all possible, are only as a stopgap, bedi'eved, since they surely go against the traditional burial. He claims, however, that the other forms are permissible to begin with.
We should note here that even during his lifetime, HaRav Eliashiv came out very adamantly against any form of burial deviating from the standard burial as practiced from time immemorial. Over a decade ago, this very columnist was summoned to his home to hear his opinion, daas Torah v'Halocha, that it is absolutely forbidden to deviate from the traditional form of burial in any form or manner.
Five years ago, HaRav Shteinman and ylchv't HaRav Kanievsky and HaRav Eidelstein signed upon a special letter to askonim which stated: "We have been commanded in the Torah to bury the dead, this burial has been regulated in the Shulchan Oruch (Yore Dei'ah 362) that it must be specifically in the ground, as is written, `And to the earth will you return.' It is not good that some people wish to change this accepted form of burial through burial in layered compartments etc. We wish hereby to declare that no changes be made in the form of burial as practiced today, which abides by our tradition as determined by Chazal. Whoever does make changes is underhanded, and we must all try to prevent any changes and allow burial everywhere according to the Din and the honor of the deceased."
