This was sent by Cynthia, the new Management Trainee of Holy Gardens Calamba, regarding the Jewish practice of buying burial lots prior to ones death.
A JEWISH PRACTICE:
Purchasing a Plot
It is an ancient Jewish custom to purchase a gravesite during one's lifetime and to own it outright prior to burial. The Bible states explicitly that Abraham bought a grave for Sarah. Likewise, Joseph was buried in the family plot that his father Jacob had acquired in the city of Shechem.
The purchase may be made through a burial society of a fraternal or religious organization, or directly from the cemetery owners. It must be located among other Jewish graves, or on grounds bought by a Jewish organization for use as a Jewish cemetery. This has been the custom through the centuries. On first settling in a new country the community purchased land for a synagogue, a school, and also a cemetery.
The following are criteria for determining whether a particular cemetery is a proper burial place for Jews:
1. The purchase contract should stipulate that the area of the plot is designed exclusively for Jews.
2. Burial rights must be permanent. The cemetery corporation should not be permitted to exercise any authority with regard to the removal of the remains from any grave.
3. All facilities for Jew and non-Jew must be absolutely separate--with separate entrance gates, and with each section fenced completely.
The Family Plot: Basic Grave Formation
1. The basic grave formation in most cemeteries is arranged according to families. There has been a custom in later centuries, observed by many memorial societies, of burying men and women in separate sections. Neither custom is obligatory. One should make inquiry regarding this procedure before one joins the society, in order to avoid problems during the moment of crisis when it is too late to make any change.
In many cemeteries it is standard procedure--and a religiously proper custom--not to bury a woman next to any man other than her husband. This is of concern especially when contemplating erection of a double monument. Therefore, the graves alternate-husband, wife, wife, husband, husband, wife, etc.
2. If man and wife were separated in marriage, they may nevertheless be buried alongside one another. If one of the partners, however, stipulated that he be buried separately, the request must be followed.
3. One who has been unmarried should be buried alongside his or her parents.
4. Married children. It is customary, though not mandatory, that the wife be buried with the husband's family. When no graves are available, they should be buried elsewhere in the same cemetery. If they live far from the parental grave, or if there are other personal advantages to selecting another cemetery, they may establish their own family plot.
5. If, by being buried in a family plot, the departed will be buried alongside a lifelong enemy, he should be buried elsewhere in the family plot. If this enemy died more than a year before, this is not necessary, and should be left to the discretion of the relatives and friends.
6. Second marriages. If a preference for burial location was expressly made, it must be honored. If this preference was not made expressly, but was implied, in that he clearly and undoubtedly lived better with one mate than the other, then he should be buried with the more beloved mate.
If no preference is known, then
a. If there are children from the marriage of only one of the mates, whichever it be, he is to be buried at that mate's family plot or at the discretion of those children.
b. If there are children from both mates, or no children from either mate, some customs suggest burial with the first mate.
7. Intermarriages. If the Jewish partner remained Jewish he is entitled to burial in a Jewish cemetery.
The unconverted gentile partner may not be buried in the Jewish cemetery. Even if that person has been circumcised, but for purposes other than conversion, he is considered non-Jewish, and may not be buried on the cemetery.
Children of a Jewish mother may be buried on the Jewish cemetery even if they have not been circumcised.
Children of a gentile mother, who themselves have not been converted, may not be buried in the cemetery even if they had been circumcised, but without intent to convert, and even if they were educated in a Jewish school.
Genuine converts are buried as full Jews, in the plot of the Jewish mate, or in a newly-established family plot. This situation is not considered an intermarriage.
8. Suicides. Traditionally, those who commit the stark offense against God and man by taking their own lives wilfully, and in full sanity, are buried separately near the cemetery gate, or at least six feet from other Jewish dead. The chapter below discusses the subject of suicides fully.
9. The observant and ethical Jew should not be buried alongside confirmed sinners. Wherever possible, this principle should be adhered to, and other arrangements should be made.
10. Burial in Israel. The burial of Jewish deceased in the Holy Land, especially those who ardently loved the land, were religiously observant, or contributed to the support of Israel, is considered an act of pious devotion, even though visitations to the grave may be rare or not at all possible.
The Bible records that Joseph made the special request to be buried, not in the land where he reigned as vice-regent, but in the land of his forefathers, the Holy Land. Burial in Israel is considered by the rabbis equal to being buried directly under the altar of the Temple. Reinterment is permissible for such purposes . For making the proper arrangements the mourners should consult the rabbi, or funeral director or a rabbinic organization.
11. Burial land bought in a cemetery, even though it was officially designated for a specific person, may be sold.
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