Dei'ah veDibur - Information &
Insight
  

A Window into the Chareidi World

16 Marcheshvan 5773 - November 1, 2012 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
NEWS

OPINION
& COMMENT

OBSERVATIONS

HOME
& FAMILY

IN-DEPTH
FEATURES

VAAD HORABBONIM HAOLAMI LEINYONEI GIYUR

TOPICS IN THE NEWS

POPULAR EDITORIALS

HOMEPAGE

 

Produced and housed by
Chareidi.org
Chareidi.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEWS
"The State Must Enable In-Ground Burial"

by Yechiel Sever

In a discussion held by the Knesset Finance Committee during the election interim, in which a budget for the continued development of conventional land burial was to be submitted, committee chairman Rabbi Gafni invited the Religions Minister to state his official position regarding the pressing lack of burial space in Israel and especially in view of the fact that many citizens who are interested in open land, or field, burial, which is the halachically correct way, are unable to be buried this and must submit to concentrated, or layered, burial against their will.

Because of the failure to develop new cemeteries in the large cities, the existing facilities have been building as many as four floors over areas of existing cemeteries. The individual graves are filled with earth, but the structure is concrete. Some rabbinical authorities permit it, but many consider it preferable or mandatory to be buried directly in the earth.

Rabbi Gafni said that there are large sectors of the population which demand plot burial, as per halachic requirement, adding that according to a report presented in the Knesset Legislative Committee, the tiered form is not even economically better, because of the huge costs involved and also since it does not reflect the public good. Rabbi Gafni said that many people would be willing to travel farther away to get earth burial. The Religions Minister said that his staff was working on solutions.

 

All material on this site is copyrighted and its use is restricted.
Click here for conditions of use.