Q: Sometimes archaeologists unearth
human remains. Or during construction a
burial mound is found. Other times a ship
goes down at sea. What are we supposed
to do when that happens?
A: In the story of Creation,
God took a lump of earth and molded it into the shape of a person. The lifeless form remained inert until the Holy
One breathed into it the breath of life and caused it to become animate. God then declared to the new being, “From the
dust you were taken and unto the dust you will return.” Thus it was decreed that when a person died
his body would revert back to its primary state, earth. Only later was it written into law when the
Bible formulated ‘ki kavor tikbarenu,’: you shall surely bury him” (Deuteronomy
21:23).
For Jewish people when a
person dies there is only one option, burial.
Embalming or preservation of the deceased in a mausoleum impedes the
course of nature. In the final analysis
the body will decompose despite any efforts we may take to stop that
process. On the opposite extreme. a willful
act to speed the process, such as cremation, is equally repugnant to Jewish
law.
It therefore stands to reason
that if a person died long ago and their body was recently uncovered or someone
died at sea without the benefit of burial that we inter them, or reinter them
in a dignified manner.
