Westerners are increasingly becoming aware of how ecologically wasteful – and toxic – the standard funeral is. Embalming, hardwood coffins, varnishes to prevent coffins from disintegrating in the ground, steel and concrete liners and large grave monuments all dump large amounts of resources into the ground – and they are costly, too. Even cremation is ecologically wasteful. As the video below argues, increasingly, Westerners are waking up to that fact and are choosing simpler burials.
In the process, they are (mostly unwittingly) adopting long standing Jewish funerary practices. Simple caskets and simple shrouds, no embalming, no open casket and no cremation are the hallmarks of traditional Jewish funerals. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Arie Folger 
Mikolot Mayim Rabbim 