Judaism’s view on cremation

Let me share with you a true story I personally heard.

When I was the Rabbi in the small resort town of Plettenberg Bay we held a monthly meeting for our fellow Jews in the nearby community of Kynsna.

There a lady told me that she had been on the Chevra Kadisha (the holy burial society, for in our tradition burial accords dignity to the person) and a doctor in their community unfortunately had a coma – she and some of her friends tried to prevail upon his wife that he should not be cremated rather buried.

Amazingly the day they got her to sign that he would be buried he briefly woke up and his first words were, “I will not burn!”, three hours later he had passed on.

You see, we are living in what is called Olam (the world) and etymologically and Kabbalistically this is connected to the word helem – concealment / darkness.

Our eyes do not see, rather the matter they see from light refractions create a delusion that our reality is all there is (as Einstein said, “Reality is an illusion albeit a very persistent one.”)

Behind all matter as Kabbalah teaches us is souls – within physical matter is a Divine conscious force (and we can now photograph – google Emoto – how water will biologically change shapes based on the positive or negative energy it feels). The same is true of vegetation (which also reacts to emotions) certainly animals (think dogs with their emotions) and most definitely us highly sensitive humans – and according to Kabbalah the most sensitive compassionate and caring being of all, is our Divine Loving Father.

In other words, our soul is the one who feels and this conscious feeler is never unconscious – hence when the soul departs the body, it is painfully, perhaps even traumatically disconcerted with its destiny.

The very worst thing we can G-d-forbid do is add to one’s trauma through cremation.

However through the dignity provided by an Orthodox traditional cleansing and clothing of the body, the soul consciously aware, and somewhat attached to its previous home, is comforted.

This is why one of our greatest Mitzvahs’ is accompanying a departed person on their final journey to their burial.

The soul is actually aware (think how much more aware you become in dangerous or traumatic scenario) of all that is going on.

It is comforted by the love being shown to it.

And most importantly, a young father was inconsolable after he lost tragically a son – the Lubavitcher Rebbe shared the following poignant, inspirational, and comforting analogy with him: “Tell me” said the Rebbe “if you knew your son was on a distant island where his every need is cared for, yet the only gap is that you cannot see him but he can see you? Furthermore you could send him packages showing your deep love, concern and bond – he will joyously receive them and his love in fact will hence multiply for you.  How would you feel?” “It would be hard” replied the father, “but I could handle it.” So the Rebbe explained, “This is the exact scenario.”

A soul in heaven is one hundred percent cared for, it has no physical needs, it sees from one end of the universe to the other, it deeply loves its family and friends, community and people, and though it cannot communicate to you, nonetheless through your every act of goodness and kindness, every extra Mitzvah observed, undertaken for it; you cause it indescribable joy!