The following was an advertisement in the Torah Tidbits:
Suitable for Kohanim: Burial rights for two adjacent front row plots in the Kohanim Section at the Sanhedria Cemetery, Jerusalem are available for transfer. Offers invited in the region of NIS100,000 and above. Please apply to...
This prompted a brief discussion with my husband at the Shabbat table about a couple things.
First of all, the utter gall this person has to auction this off. To me it just seems so... crass.
Second, real estate in Jerusalem per meter for the dead seems to be just as expensive as apartments for the living.
And third, apparently they're running out of burial spaces in the country... especially in Jerusalem.
My solution to number three by the way is to stop allowing Jews who don't actually live in Israel, to be buried in Israel. If the country wasn't good enough for you when you were alive and well and could appreciate the land and contribute to the country by say, paying taxes, then you shouldn't become a tax on the country when you're dead by taking up needed burial space.
4 comments:
You have a good point.
What if I want to bury my parents, who may have lived abroad, but I live in Israel? Doesn't it make sense to be buried in a place where your surviving family can visit your kever?
My in-laws are buried in the SHiloh Cemetery, which makes sense to all of us. The family is here in Israel.
Chavela, well maybe there should be a necropolis somewhere for 'out of towners' who have family in Israel. But not in Jerusalem...
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