Bayit’s Builders Blog includes a weekly series that explores Torah through a lens of building and civic responsibility.
I’m delighted to have contributed this week’s teaching about Jewish burial customs and how they both overlap with and diverge from the customs of Green burial.
The illustration was created by Steve Silbert, who is a member of the Bayit Board, the lead builder for Visual Torah and Bayit Games, and has been sketch noting the weekly Torah portion for years. Steve also uses sketch notes in his work as an Agile Coach, teaching visual facilitation basics in software development and marketing.
Hayye Sarah: Return to the Earth
The concept of the purchase of land, which is then dedicated to make it holy for burial, is well-known in Jewish tradition. One of the first things a Jewish community is to establish, along with a mikvah and school, is a cemetery. Here in Atlanta, the Jewish section in Historic Oakland Cemetery was purchased in 1860. I personally struggle with the idea that Jewish burial must take place in a designated Jewish cemetery, and have been exploring the feasibility of Jewish-Green burial as a way of balancing Jewish values of conservation and environmental justice. Read more