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By Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky,
B’nei Israel Congregation, Costa Rica

Translated by Inés Baum - Proofreading by Ellen Zindler

We rabbis are often questioned about the burial of Jewish people in non Jewish cemeteries, private graveyards, etc. In my opinion, the answer is obvious and was already given by the first Hebrew, Abraham, in this week’s parashah.

At the beginning of Parashat Chayei Sarah, our matriarch Sarah dies, at the age of 127. The Torah recounts the mourning and weeping of her husband Abraham. Up to that moment, Abraham and his clan did not have a cemetery of their own, for they had not yet suffered any death in the family.

Abraham decides to buy a cave, according to the custom of the times, to bury his wife there. He hopes to acquire Me’arat ha’Machpela, “the cave of Machpela”, which was owned by a man named Ephron, from the Hittite people. At this point, an intense negotiation begins: the Hittites in general, as well as Ephron in particular, offer Abraham a plot for free among the private tombs of the Hittites. Abraham, however, rejects this offering and insists on buying the field. Finally, Ephron agrees to sell him Me’arat ha’Machpela, and Abraham is able to bury his wife there.

The question that arises is why Abraham rejected a free plot for the burial, preferring to buy one instead. Well, Abraham could have accepted the Hittites’ offering, but that would not give him any surety regarding the future of his wife’s tomb; what is given as a courtesy, can be withdrawn at any time. If the Hittites decided to move, if later on they decided to destroy the burial site in order to build on or cultivate the field… would Abraham have any right to object? Did he possess any right that would protect him? No. The only way for Abraham to ensure his wife’s eternal rest was to purchase a property, ensuring as well the graves of the rest of his family in the future.

There is another aspect possibly considered by Abraham when he insisted on buying the plot, and it has to do with worship. I can imagine Abraham saying to himself: “Who can guarantee that I will be able to remember my wife in the manner that I consider appropriate, according to my tradition, my culture and my idiosyncrasy? Will the Hittites allow me to fulfill my own funeral rites? And even if they do, will I feel comfortable if I have to witness Hittite ceremonies around Sarah’s tomb?”

Since Abraham’s times, we Jews have concerned ourselves with having our own burial ground. For us, to own a cemetery is a holy and mandatory task. In fact, many of the Jewish communities established in the American continent as of the 19th century, have their origin on the need to possess a graveyard and form a chevrah kadisha.

Just as a community must always concern itself on maintaining its cemetery, Jews must always make sure they are buried in a Jewish cemetery. That is the only place about which they will be sure that it will not be used with commercial ends, that it will always be preserved as a cemetery and that there, Jewish customs will always be observed. It is the only place about which they can affirm with certainty that they will rest forever in the manner in which they lived, respecting thus their identity, in life as well as in death. Like Abraham and Sarah, like us.

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Forwarded by Rabbi Gustavo Kraselnik, from Kol Shearith Israel Congregation, Panama.
Translated by Inés Baum and proofread by Ellen Zindler, from B’nei Israel Congregation, Costa Rica.

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