From dust to dust...

I attended my first Jewish funeral a few days ago. It was some half-distant relative of Yoram's who passed away. One good thing in Judaism is that dead people should be buried as soon as possible, preferably on the same day, which seems quite sound compared to Sweden where they refrigerate the corpses sometimes for weeks before any funeral is arranged. On the other hand all Jews are buried intact, and never incinerated. For me, being burned and then have my ashes spread somewhere seems more appealing. Another difference from Sweden is that Jews do not use coffins, but merely a shroud. Nevertheless, considering the population density in Israel you might suspect that we will walk on bones and bones and bones in some near future, but I was also told that the grave yard applies "multistory graves", which means that if they dig a grave very deep you can expect that there will be another corpse above the first one later on. After the deceased is put down, the hole is filled up, first with some soil, and later heavy rocks. We were standing at a distance from the grave behind a lot of people and could therefore not see what was going on, but I could hear as they threw the heavy rocks down the hole on top of the body, and it felt kind of strange. Blessings are said and relatives share thoughts and emotions, of course in a microphone in true Israeli style (why differ from the weddings). Before it finishes, everybody should put a small stone or pebble on the grave to prevent the soul from dwelling around. I guess that custom is more needed with some than with others.