Technology and Sustainability
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Regina Sandler-Phillips
Apr 27, 2012, 6:23:51 PM4/27/12
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I share all of Joe's concerns about QR and headstones. I also agree with Ilene that the real issue isn't technology per se, but whether a particular technology supports the core values of Jewish burial.
Our burial values are derived from the Biblical contention that even the corpse of an executed criminal deserves protection from desecration. Core values also include biodegradability ("To dust you shall return") and environmental sustainability ("Do not waste or destroy"), as well as simplicity and equality ("All should be brought out on a plain bier for the honor of the poor").
I think we need to pay particular attention to the sustainability imperative, which is known in Hebrew as Lo (or Bal) Tashkhit. Like the imperative of burial, Lo Tashkhit can be traced back to Deuteronomy, where it is originally concerned with the wanton destruction of trees in wartime.
Less well-known is how later rabbis connected this imperative directly to burial. The following commentary is from Maimonides' Mishneh Torah (Laws of Mourning, 14:24)--the context being the well-intentioned funeral excesses of previous millennia:
"We teach the person not to be wasteful, and not to lose keilim by casting them to waste. Better to give them to the poor than to cast them to maggots and worms. Whoever piles many keilim upon the deceased transgresses 'Lo Tashkhit.' "
The Hebrew word "keilim" can be understood as either "garments" or "utensils." As Joe has already noted, the trend toward high-tech "utensils" raises serious environmental concerns--planned obsolescence, anyone? It also raises the perennial ethical questions about money increasingly spent to memorialize the dead rather than to save lives and alleviate poverty among the living.
May we go from strength to strength.
With many blessings for the Season of Revelation and beyond,
Regina
Rabbi Regina L. Sandler-Phillips, MSW, MPH
WAYS OF PEACE promotes community justice and kindness
through mindful responses to human needs throughout the life cycle.
"In cities of diversity...we sustain the poor...and visit the sick...
and bury the dead...and comfort the bereaved...for these are ways of peace."
(Jerusalem Talmud, Tractate Gittin)
Kerry Swartz
Apr 30, 2012, 11:49:24 PM4/30/12
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Of course, now, I am of
two minds about this issue . . .
One of the fundamental precepts that brought me to Chevra Kadisha volunteerism was the belief and understanding was that no matter what kind of Jewish life one lead, whatever the inequities, opulence or neediness, each of us would be accorded the same holiness, dignity and respect in death. This remains central to my participation in the help I am asked to provide and the effort I willingly offer when needed.
On the other hand, there are plenty of physical reminders of the life one lead; stories, anecdotes, photos, articles to endowments, hospital annexes, school names, etc. But in death - at least in our traditional approach and movement - all are treated without the influence of these things.
So if we understand, accept that death is the finality of one's life, the cemetery the sacred place where this is confirmed and accepted, one could argue that such technology allows the deceased to "come to life" where their remains returned to the earth.
On the other hand, one might simply suggest that this just makes what is known, collected or accumulated about an individual more accessible. One who was well-off, philanthropic and fruitful may well have more to say (and more more people to tell about them) than someone who was insular, isolated and impoverished. Such disparities might very well be apparent, yet bringing them to a cemetery could well reinforce the disparities our traditions in death attempt to equalize.
Sometimes it's just so darn confusing being Jewish.
One of the fundamental precepts that brought me to Chevra Kadisha volunteerism was the belief and understanding was that no matter what kind of Jewish life one lead, whatever the inequities, opulence or neediness, each of us would be accorded the same holiness, dignity and respect in death. This remains central to my participation in the help I am asked to provide and the effort I willingly offer when needed.
On the other hand, there are plenty of physical reminders of the life one lead; stories, anecdotes, photos, articles to endowments, hospital annexes, school names, etc. But in death - at least in our traditional approach and movement - all are treated without the influence of these things.
So if we understand, accept that death is the finality of one's life, the cemetery the sacred place where this is confirmed and accepted, one could argue that such technology allows the deceased to "come to life" where their remains returned to the earth.
On the other hand, one might simply suggest that this just makes what is known, collected or accumulated about an individual more accessible. One who was well-off, philanthropic and fruitful may well have more to say (and more more people to tell about them) than someone who was insular, isolated and impoverished. Such disparities might very well be apparent, yet bringing them to a cemetery could well reinforce the disparities our traditions in death attempt to equalize.
Sometimes it's just so darn confusing being Jewish.
Gabriela Bebchick
May 1, 2012, 8:28:11 AM5/1/12
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Please keep the newfangled technology out of
Jewish cemeteries. Let the dead rest in peace.
Gabriela Bebchick
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