Ra'anana Community Kollel - Parshat Vayechi 5764

The Final Resting Place

Rabbi Dovid Horwitz

The Torah tells us that both Ya’akov and Yosef commanded their children to bring their bodies to their final resting place in Eretz Yisrael, and not to bury them in Egypt. From these instances we learn a number of practical laws concerning burial. Rabeinu Bachyai explains that Ya’akov and Yosef did not want to be buried in Egypt since they would inevitably be buried next to the bodies of the immoral Egyptians. In this vein, the Gemara (Sanhedrin 47a) teaches that it is forbidden to bury a deceased person next to someone of a significantly lower spiritual stature.

In accordance with the Gemara’s ruling, a person who lead a non-observant lifestyle should not be buried next to an observant Jew, and a regular observant Jew should not be buried near a deceased Rabbi of extraordinary stature. It is for this reason that Jewish cemeteries have two separate sections in which to inter those who were observant and those who were not. In the Kefar Nachman cemetery in Ra’anana, although completely separate sections have not been designated for this purpose, Shabbat observant Jews are still buried in separate rows from the non-observant.

According to others, Ya’akov and Yosef’s requested that they be buried in Eretz Yisrael because they wished to receive the special merits of being buried in the Holy Land as opposed to being buried outside of the land of Israel. Even nowadays, many Jews are willing to bear the great expense of sending their loved ones from other lands to Eretz Yisrael to be buried within its holy soil.

Some Poskim however are not quick to learn from Ya’akov and Yosef’s requests that it is necessarily praiseworthy to be buried specifically in the land of Israel. The Rambam writes that although one who lives and is buried in Eretz Yisrael will receive an added level of atonement and spiritual elevation, bringing the deceased's body to Eretz Yisrael after death is not akin to having lived and died there. According to this view, the fact Ya’akov and Yosef requested that they be buried in Eretz Yisrael despite the fact that they lived their lives elsewhere, cannot serve as a halachic precedent for us as they were righteous tzaddikim who were definitely worthy of being buried here. However, a Jew who was not a tzaddik, although he may not have been a sinner either, might not be worthy enough to be buried in Eretz Yisrael.

In essence, it could very well be that these two concepts, that a sinner should not be buried in Eretz Yisrael or alongside a tzaddik, are really one and the same. Just as one should give careful thought as to which land he should be buried, so too, one should give careful thought to next to who he is to be buried. Being buried in a place where he is unworthy can cause discomfort to the soul of that person, as his inadequacies could thereby made far more obvious to the heavenly court. According to these halachot, a person’s burial place should serve as a reflection on how he or she lived life. A person should be buried next to those who shared his or her same ideals, to those who lived their lives with a similar dedication to one’s own.

Practically speaking, despite the view of the Rambam which would discourage the transport of the deceased to Israel for burial, many other poskim do extol the virtues of being laid to rest in the land of Israel, regardless of the level of religious commitment of the deceased, as ultimately burial in Israel can offer a special level of atonement even for the errant Jew.