A wonderful elderly woman died Friday night. We do not bury on Shabbat. The cemetery was booked solid for Sunday, Monday (today) is Labor Day and Erev Rosh haShana, Tuesday is first day Rosh haShana and Wednesday is second day. So, this woman is being buried Thursday, a full 6 days later.
This just happens sometimes. We are lucky we live in a time of refrigeration – the rabbis of the Talmud did not have that luxury. So, they made it easier to bury on Yom Tov:
Rava said: If one died on the first day of a Festival, gentiles should attend to his burial. If he died on the second day of a Festival, Jews should attend to his burial. And even with regard to the two Festival days of Rosh HaShana, the halakha is that the legal status of the two days is like that of the two days of the Festivals – meaning you bury even on second day Rosh haShana. ..Rav Ashi said: Even though the burial was not delayed, but it is the day that he died, we still do not delay the burial. What is the reason for this? With regard to the dead, the Sages equated the legal status of the second Festival day with that of a weekday.
Kavod haMet, honoring the dead, is such an important mitzvah in Judaism. In a time when the body would begin to decompose that day, when it would begin to smell and those left to guard it (an honor in Jewish tradition) would be repulsed by it – burying within 24 hours was the best way to honor the dead.
Today, with refrigeration, we have the ability to keep bodies longer so that more family will be able to travel into town, more friends take off work for those hours. This too is Kavod haMet, ensuring family and friends can be there. And so, for women like the one who passed on Shabbat, sometimes waiting 6 days is a way of providing more honor, not less.
2,711 pages of Talmud. A gem a day. 