Question:
We have been asked two questions with regard to the procedure which should be followed when the bodies of soldiers who died overseas are brought back to the United States:
(a) Should the bodies be taken out of the caskets and washed, inasmuch as the ritual washing, tahara, was very likely not performed overseas?
(b) Since the bodies will be brought in closed bronze caskets, should the bodies be transferred to the open wooden caskets before re-burial in a Jewish cemetery?
The CANRA is no longer directly concerned with these questions. When the bodies are turned over to the families, those families can ask their own rabbi for a decision. This matter has become a civil matter.
However, many are asking us for our recommendation. We, therefore, offer the following opinion.
Answer:
(a) As to tahara: The general attitude of the Jewish law is against unnecessary disturbing of the body, chiefly for the reason of nivvul hameth. Even for the purpose of putting on shrouds it is forbidden to remove the body from the coffin. (See our earlier responsum on this matter, and also Dudaey Hasodeh #26.) Also, when a body was given incomplete tahara (i.e. less than nine kabs of water were used) the question is discussed in various responsa whether the body should be disinterred for the purpose of giving it a complete tahara. And the answer given is that the body should not be dusturbed (see authorities cited in "Ach L'Tsarah," page 60, note 2). Certainly in the case of the bodies brought from overseas, in which the process of decay is well advanced, nivvul hameth applies more completely than in bodies just recently buried. Moreover, many bodies were buried on the battlefield in a condition in which tahara was not permissible (i.e. with the blood of wounds). Besides, tahara of the soldiers' remains, except in rare cases of embalming, is practically impossible. Therefore, no attempt should be made to take out the remains for the purpose of attempting tahara.
(b) There are many practical reasons why the casket in which the body is brought from overseas should not be opened. It is impossible to know what the condition of the body was when it was placed in the casket originally, or to estimate the state of decomposition after all this time has passed since the original burial.
However, although the practical necessities would require burying the body in the receptacle in which it is delivered by the government to the family, the question is whether this is at all permissible according to Jewish law. There is, of course, the general legal objection to disturbing the remains unduly. On the other hand, there is some objection to a metal casket. The fact of the matter is that even a complete wooden casked has no firm legal basis, the law requiring that the body should be actually buried in the earth. See Nachmanides quoted by Karo to Tur Yore Deah 363, who says that the use of the coffin in Talmudic times was only for the bones after the flesh decayed. The only Scriptural warrant for a wooden casket seems to be the midrash in Genesis Rabba Chapter 19, Section 8, based upon the phrase in Genesis 3:8; "And Adam hid himself from before the Lord among the trees (etz) of the garden.— To this the Midrash comments: This is the hint that his descendants will be buried in coffins of wood. The law, Tur Yore Deah 363 and Shulchan Aruch, prefers burial directly in the earth. It seems to concede burial in a coffin provided that the coffin is open to the earth at the bottom. Then a concession is made to the completely closed coffin provided holes are bored in it to permit contact with the earth. However, Karo, Yore Deah 363 #5, speaks of stone caskets; and the Talmud (b. Sota 13a) says that Joseph's coffin was made of metal.
While the custom of using metal coffins never did become general (as did the use of wooden coffins), perhaps in the present special circumstances it may be sufficient to bore holes in the metal casket for contact with the earth. However, even piercing the casket is not entirely necessary. Eliezer Deutsch (in Dudaey Hasodeh #26) discusses an analogous question. A righteous man was buried in a double coffin which, at the doctor's orders, was not pierced for direct contact with the earth. The question was asked of Eliezer Deutsch whether or not the grave should be opened in order to bore holes in the coffin. He said that it should not be done, because a righteous man does not need the atonement (kapparah) of direct contact with the earth; and that when Judah Hannasi asked that his coffin be pierced (j, Kilaim 32b) he asked it out of modesty, in order to indicate that he did not claim to possess special righteousness. Besides, to hammer at the coffin with tools and to run the risk of piercing the body is certainly an insult (bizoyon to the dead).
May we not say, therefore, that while indeed it is not the custom to use a metal casket, yet these soldiers who gave up their life for a righteous cause be deemed righteous and therefore do not necessarily need direct contact with the earth; that therefore the casked be not disturbed or pierced but they be buried in the earth as received. Moreover, all these bodies had previously been buried overseas in wooden coffins and indeed some without coffins. Thus, the purpose of burial in contact with earth (namely, atonement, Deuteronomy 32:43) has been amply fulfilled.
As for the permissibility of burial in a metal casket, the proof that it is permissible is given in "Ben Zekunim" by Rabbi Jacob Bruell (published in Drohobicz in 1889 - p. 29ff) and developed fully by Rabbi Jacob Levinson in his "Hatorah V'hamada" (New York, 1932 - p. 66ff),
If certain cemetery authorities nevertheless insist that the metal government casket cannot be used and that a wooden casket be used, what shall be done with the metal casket? The law is generally that a casket made for one body may not be used for any other body and is Assur b'Hanaah. In that case it could not be sold to a Gentile undertaker or for metal. But it may be argued that since the bronze casket is not considered by Jewish custom to be a proper coffin at all, it may be used for any purpose (cf. Ach L'tzarah, page 63). But the Shulchan Aruch Yore Deah 363 #5 (based upon Semachot XIII) says specifically that a coffin from which a body has been removed be destroyed, and that it it is a stone coffin it should be broken up, and if it is a wooden coffin it should be burned.