A chevra kadisha (חברה קדישא Aramaic: "holy society", acting as a "burial society", sometimes transliterates as khevra kadisha) is a loosely structured but generally closed organization of Jewish men and women who see to it that the bodies of Jews are prepared for burial according to Halacha (Jewish law) and are protected from desecration, willful or not, until burial. Bereavement in Judaism ( is a combination of Minhag (traditional custom and Mitzvot (good deeds or religious obligation derived from Judaism 's classical Aramaic is a Semitic language with PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ Halakha ( הלכה; alternative transliterations include Halocho and Halacha) is the collective body of Jewish Religious law Burial, also called interment and inhumation, is the act of placing a person or object into the ground Two of the main requirements are the showing of proper respect for a corpse, and the ritual cleansing of the body and subsequent dressing for burial.
The task of the chevra kadisha is considered a laudable one, as tending to the dead is a favour that the recipient cannot return, making it devoid of ulterior motives. Its work is therefore referred to as a chesed shel emet (a good deed of truth), paraphrased from Genesis 47:29 (where Jacob asks his son Joseph, "do me a 'true' favor" and Joseph promises his father to bury him in the Land of Israel). For other uses see Israel (disambiguation The Land of Israel ( Hebrew: אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל Eretz Yisrael) is
At the heart of the society's function is the ritual of tahara, or purification. Bereavement in Judaism ( is a combination of Minhag (traditional custom and Mitzvot (good deeds or religious obligation derived from Judaism 's classical The body is first thoroughly cleansed of dirt, body fluids and solids, and anything else that may be on the skin, and then it is ritually purified by immersion in, or a continuous flow of, water from the head over the entire body. Tahara may refer to either the entire process, or to the ritual purification. Once the body is purified, the body is dressed in tachrichim, or shrouds, of white pure cotton garments made up of ten pieces for a male and twelve for a female, which are identical for each Jew and which symbolically recalls the garments worn by the Kohen Gadol (High Priest). Tachrichim (burial Shrouds are traditional simple white burial garments usually made from 100% pure Linen, in which Jews are dressed by the Chevra Kohen Gadol or Kohen ha-Gadol ( Heb כהן גדול "Great Priest" is the title of High Priest of early Israelite Once the body is dressed, the casket is sealed. When being buried in Israel, however, a casket is not used.
The society may also provide shomrim, or watchers, to guard the body from theft until burial (although in some communities this is done by people close to the departed). At one time, the danger of theft of the body was very real, now it has become a way of honoring the deceased.
A specific task for the burial society is tending to the dead who have no immediate next-of-kin. These are termed a meit mitzvah (a mitzvah corpse), as tending to a meit mitzvah overrides virtually any other positive commandment (mitzvot aseh) of Torah law. This article is about commandments in Judaism For the Jewish rite of passage see Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah Mitzvah ( Hebrew: מצוה
Many burial societies hold one or two annual fast days and organise regular study sessions to remain up-to-date with the relevant articles of Jewish law. In addition, most burial societies also support families during the shiv'ah (traditional week of mourning) by arranging prayer services, meals and other facilities. In Judaism, shiv'ah or shiva ( is the week-long period of grief and Mourning for the seven first-degree relatives father mother son daughter brother Jewish services ( Hebrew: תפלה, tefillah; plural תפלות, tefillos or tefillot; Yinglish: davening
While burial societies were, in Europe, generally a community function, in America it has become far more common for societies to be organized by each synagogue. However, not every synagogue has such a society.
See also
Further reading
- Chesed Shel Emet: The Truest Act of Kindness, Rabbi Stuart Kelman, October, 2000, EKS Publishing Co., ISBN 0-939144-33-6. ZAKA (זק"א an abbreviation for Zihuy Korbanot Ason, literally "Disaster Victim Identification" is a series of voluntary Community emergency response The Hebrew Free Burial Association (HFBA was established in 1888 as a free burial society serving the residents of Manhattan 's Lower East Side and was incorporated
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