Jerusalem – Four senior national-religious rabbis have joined an initiative promoting “high-density” burial as a means to alleviate the increasingly problematic lack of burial land in the country.
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The initiative was launched ahead of the traditional day of personal accounting for Burial Societies, which occurs on the Hebrew date of Adar 7 and fell this year on Thursday, and also marks the anniversary of the date on which Moses was born and died.
The campaign, initiated last week by the Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah national-religious organization, was endorsed by Rabbis Benny Lau, Yuval Cherlow, David Bigman and Yehuda Shaviv.
Layered burial, Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah says, is part of the recent and ongoing struggle for social justice, and a revolution in social attitudes to the issue is crucial in preventing future generations being burdened with an unaffordable amount of land being used for burial.
There are several forms of highdensity burial, but the one being advanced is known as “Sanhedrin burial,” because of its use in the past during the times of the Sanhedrin court, and involves interring coffins within a wall in a layered fashion.
“We wish everyone to live until 120,” the petition begins, “but when the time arrives for one of our loved ones to leave this world, we want to encourage, if possible, that their family endeavor to bury them in a layered burial plot.”
According to the campaign, highdensity burial is permitted by Jewish law and was also practiced by Jewish sages in ancient times. Layered burial has also been approved by chief rabbis Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger who say that it is totally acceptable and considered the same as more traditional burial.
Because of the land shortage, particularly for burial plots, the Ministry of Religious Affairs has also begun a public campaign to encourage high-density burial, although the public has not yet warmed to the idea.
More than 35,000 Jews die every year in Israel. At present, each dunam (0.1 hectare) of burial land can hold 270 plots, which translates as 150 dunams of land given over to burial every year. By 2020, 1,000,000 dunams of land will be needed for burial plots.
According to Jewish law, cremation is forbidden.
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
Basically apartment buildings for the Niftarim!
In other words they are pushing for mausaliams.
Most Rabbonim say this is assur. There is no real shortage of space, it is just a matter of wanting to be close by. Better to bury in the desert than to bury in manner that goes against halacho.
This whole burial episode is mainly to ‘arouse’ public ‘awareness’ that theres not enough room to bury,(whilst being partly true,but also not wanting for there to be an alternatiue Solution) so the rip off price of a kever can go EVEN higher,Hakol kesef….
The math is faulty. 35,000 plots per year equals approximately 130 dunams per year (at 270 plots per dunam). At that rate, by 2020 (let’s say 9 full years) only 1170 dunams will be required, not 1,000,000. At 1170 dunams per year, it would take over 800 years to reach a million dunams.
it’s encouraging that you post an article saying that 1000000 dunam of land will be needed in 2020. true believers in moshiach.
My solution is that people should just stop dying…but wait- then we need higher high risers…
#9 you’ve hit it. And this is definitely an opportunity to raise burial prices. After all prices are ridiculous. Many not so frum ppl are cremating bodies cuz they can’t afford burial plots. This way the need smaller land.
They did this hundreds of years ago in European countries, like Italy. It was done below the ground, similar to wine cellars.
What are the burial places of eminent rabbis, with their ‘ohalim’, than mausoleums?
Eminence in death does not fit in with Jewish tradition, although I suppose that some are more “equal” than others, even under the ground.
First, they should ban Jews who die outside of Eretz Yisrael from being buried in Israel.(The transportation of Niftarim to Israel is a big business for Jews in America). Land in Israel should be devoted to the living — farms, orchards, factories, schools, parks, apartments.
Ah, so there is a problem.
What happened to the Sinai peninsula? Oh, they didn’t need it.
Who needs land anyway, if we need space we could spread upwards