Re: [OT] Ping Adam

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

A question about Jewish policies with respect to interment.

I've been under the impression that it is Jewish tradition to bury the
dead within 24 hours of death and that no other approach - e.g.
cremation - is cool.

Imagine my surprise when I read a passage in a novel where a main
character who is ethnically Jewish - there is no evidence of him
practicing Judaism in the book - dies suddenly of an apparent cerebral
hemorrhage and his wife tells the captain of the boat they are sailing
on - which she owns - not to go to shore and report to authorities so
they can perform an autopsy. Rather, they are burying him at sea that
same day at sunset. There were absolutely NO suspicious circumstances
and she is most definitely NOT trying to cover anything up.

Would such an end be "problematic" in any way - socially, religiously,
etc. - in real life for Jews?

I have no idea. It's impractical and not always followed. What if people
from out of town need more time to get there? What if the ground is
frozen? In Alaska, burials would wait till spring. It's an "ask the
rabbi" thing.

Likely, it was more of a practicality, before refridgeration was
invented and everyone lived in the same place.

I recall an episode of Quincy in which it was a plot point that a rabbi
had to sit with the body (because no one else would), so he sat in the
refridgerator.

No burials take place on the Sabbath.

Legally, the wife cannot determine for herself that the death wasn't
suspicious, and I don't know how that cause of death would be determined
without autopsy.