Q&A: Burial
Burial
Question
A question for the Rabbi. In the past they used to bury bodies for a year, and then gather the bones and bury them in ancestral graves, as explained in tractate Moed Katan. Why is this no longer practiced today, when this method would save space?
Answer
A good suggestion (I haven’t checked the details of that old practice closely). In any case, if you’re asking sociologically—nowadays people don’t change anything from established practice, even where it would be possible to change, out of concern about Reform, God forbid.
Discussion on Answer
What about women being called up to the Torah and reading the Megillah? What about dancing with the bride on your shoulders? Or girls dancing in the vineyards before all Israel?
Indeed.
Today there are hospitals, so there’s no need for vineyards.
Are even practices that have a source in the Talmud considered Reform from a public standpoint? I know only examples of innovations that don’t appear in Jewish sources from the past.