Why Does Judaism Oppose Cremation? - The Sacredness of Your Body

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi YY Jacobson’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

Thank you so so much for your kind introductory remarks. Thank you so so much to the Hebrew Free Burial Association for this unique privilege and invitation to address you this evening. I know that we're not addressing an exciting uh joyous subject. We're going to be discussing burial in Jewish culture, tradition, law, mysticism, spirituality. And yet, you know, we Jews, the Talmud says that one of the greatest sages, Rabba, before he would begin a serious lecture, even if it was a very intense subject, he would always begin with an anecdote, what we call a milika, allow me as well to begin with two anecdotes on the subject. Anecdote number one, especially dedicated to my dear brothers and sisters who live in New York City, especially in Manhattan or Brooklyn. You will or Queens, you will uniquely appreciate this anecdote. They say a story. There was once a police officer passed away. But he wasn't just any police officer. He was considered one of the most celebrated police officers. He has given more tickets, more tickets than any other officer in the history of the United States of America. Day in day out, faithfully, he managed to obtain ticket after ticket to penalize people, breaking the law this way or that way, giving them summons after summons. And finally, his day came and they lower the coffin into the grave. And the priest, the clergyman who's there officiating at the funeral, suddenly hears a little voice, a subtle voice from the coffin. And the clergyman bends down. And this officer says, "Father, father, I'm not dead.

Jump to a moment

1. 0:00Thank you so so much for your kind introductory remarks. Thank you so so much to…
2. 4:40American Jewish community is not that old. But this organization, the Hebrew Free Burial Association, has…
3. 9:20make sure you bury him that day. That from there we learn the mitzvah of burial.…
4. 13:57non-Jewish child. As the years went on, they developed a true liking to each other and…
5. 18:35you have to give up $25 million in order to give your father a Jewish burial?…
6. 23:11charity, in order to engage in gestures and acts of love, in order to utter words…
7. 27:49And that is the genesis of the resurrection of the body after Msiah comes. When the…
8. 32:28I thank my friend and colleague from Los Angeles, Rabbi Yoli Gold, who made this story…
9. 37:07who passed away. He puts it into the grave and he reads the name and then…
10. 41:48Jew today. You have built a beautiful, amazing Jewish family today because of this man. And…

Every second of this shiur plays inside Lehallel — a filtered YouTube library of Torah, music and shiurim. No ads, no comments, no autoplay.