Chevra Kadisha

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Chevra Kadisha

A chevra kadisha (hervra kadisha) (Aramaic

Aramaic language

Aramaic is a Semitic languages with a 3,000-year history. It has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship....
: ???? ?????, "holy society") 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

Burial

Burial, also called interment and inhumation, is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over....
. 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.

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A chevra kadisha (hervra kadisha) (Aramaic

Aramaic language

Burial

Burial society

A burial society is a form of friendly society. These groups historically existed in England, and constituted for the purpose of providing by voluntary subscriptions, for insuring money to be paid on the death of a member, or for the funeral expenses of the husband, wife or child of a member, or of the widow of a deceased member....
in English.

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 (where Jacob asks his son Joseph, "do me a 'true' favor" and Joseph promises his father to bury him in the Land of Israel

Land of Israel

For other uses, see Israel The Land of Israel is the region which, according to the Hebrew Bible, was promised by God to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson....
).

At the heart of the society's function is the ritual of tahara
Bereavement in Judaism

Bereavement in Judaism is a combination of minhag and mitzvah derived from Judaism's classical Torah and Rabbinical literature texts. The details of observance and practice vary according to each Jewish community....
, or purification. 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
Tachrichim

Tachrichim are traditional simple white burial garments, usually made from 100% pure linen, in which Jews are dressed by the Chevra Kadisha for burial after undergoing a Bereavement in Judaism#Preparing the body ? Taharah ....
, 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

Kohen Gadol

Kohen Gadol or Kohen ha-Gadol is the title of wiktionary:High Priest of early Israelite religion and of Classical Age Judaism from the rise of the Israelite nation until the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem....
(High Priest). 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

Mitzvah

This article is about commandments in Judaism. For the Jewish rite of passage, see Bar Mitzvah and Bat MitzvahMitzvah is a word used in Judaism to refer to the 613 Mitzvot given in the Torah and the Mitzvah#Rabbinical_mitzvot instituted later for a total of 620....
corpse), as tending to a meit mitzvah overrides virtually any other positive commandment (mitzvot aseh) of Torah law.

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
Shiv'ah

In Judaism, shiva is the week-long period of grief and mourning for the seven first-degree relatives: father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, and spouse....
(traditional week of mourning) by arranging prayer services

Jewish services

Jewish services are the prayer recitations that form part of the observance of Judaism. These prayers, often with instructions and commentary, are found in the siddur, the traditional Jewish prayer book....
, meals and other facilities.

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.

Chevra Kadisha

See also

Further reading

External links