Cremation and the Afterlife
Question
Sir, In Finland nowadays growing number of dead bodies are cinerated i.e. burnt to ashes. What is Jewish opinion about this ? I mean religious opinion. Finland is mainly atheistic country today probably due to Luther doctrine. Will those people go to Hell after their death because their bodies are burnt and those people themself also by freewill want that their body is burnt to ashes after their dead ?
Best regards,
Kari Laiho
Finland
Answers
Cremation declares that this world is the beginning and end of Man. A basis of Jewish faith is that this is not true. The body is held on deposit, and together with the soul, it really belongs to God. He decides when and where man should die, and He decides what to do with the body once it has fulfilled it’s this worldly purpose. In fact, so severe is the prohibition that Jewish Law dictates that one should not sit shivah over someone who was cremated voluntarily and one is not obliged to bury the ashes of one who was willingly cremated. In addition the body of a cremated person is not liable for resurrection not so much because of the physical impediment but rather in line with the diction that one who doesn’t believe in resurrection will not experience it.
The prohibition against cremation is only applicable to someone who voluntarily requested it. All of the Jews over the generations who were burned to death at the hands of the various bestial murderers, simply for the “crime” of being Jewish, have a place in the World to Come and are considered to have sanctified God’s Name by giving up their lives.
Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team