Sarah’s and other ancient death rituals

Hayyei Sarah Genesis, Chapters 23-25:18

By Irv Jacobs, MD

Irv Jacobs

LA JOLLA, California — This parasha opens with the death of Sarah in Hebron. It is followed by Abraham’s negotiation with the shrewd Hittite landowner Ephron to purchase the cave of Machpelah as the burial site for her and subsequently the patriarchs and other matriarchs.

Genesis , Ch.23: 9-16 To the Hittites, “…Let him (Ephron) sell me the cave of Machpelah, which is at the edge of his land….at the full price…four hundred shekels…”

I was curious about such a purchase, and decided to search the internet for analogous purchase negotiations in other ancient cultures. I found none. It would appear that the above literary reference from the Torah is a ‘first’ in world literature. [1]

It may well be that purchase of burial sites is mainly a modern phenomenon, with our cemeteries acting shrewdly, like Ephron. King Herod, in an ancient variation, chose and built his own burial site half way up the slope of the man-made 300-foot Herodium hill he had constructed, but surely not with his own money.

Machpelah’s subsequent history is that the site has always been a sacred monument of the Jewish people. Others buried there are: Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah. It was embellished by a surrounding magnificent wall of stones in the time of King Herod.

Jews prayed there until the area was captured by the Moslems in the seventh century CE. After 1267 CE, Jews (and Christians) were prohibited to enter the cave or to ascend beyond the seventh step of the outer wall. This was the case until Hebron was liberated by the Israel Defense Forces in 1967. Since then, Jews, Christians, and Muslims have the freedom to worship within the cave. [2]

Clues indicate that the world’s first burials occurred some 50,000 years ago, but the oldest known intentional burial site is at Qafzeh, Israel in a cave 10,000 years ago.

Also what I learned on line are the burial practices of a number of ancient peoples. Here are examples:
Mesopotamia: Burials there date to 5000 BCE in Sumer, where food and tools were interred with the dead. Sumerians believed in an after-life. They pictured the other world as a dark abode of miserable shadows, below the earth. Graves were constructed in the ground to provide the deceased with easy access.

Throughout Mesopotamia, non-royalty were buried below the family home or next to it. If not buried properly, a person could return as a ghost to haunt the living and wreak havoc.

Cremation was uncommon throughout Mesopotamia. The proper place for the soul was in the nether world. If cremated, the belief was that the dead’s soul ascended sky-ward toward the home of the gods, where it was not welcome.

Egypt: The dead were buried underground (except for royalty, who were placed into pyramids, also underground). The deceased were buried with grave goods and as many ‘shabti dolls’ as a family could afford, to help with chores in the afterlife.

Sacred spells from “The Egyptian Book of the Dead” were recited to direct the soul toward the Hall of Truth and the judgment of the god Osiris. Osiris would then weigh the heart of the deceased against the white feather of Ma’at, of truth and harmony. If the heart was found lighter than the feather, the deceased was given passage to the Fiield of Reeds, i.e. paradise. If the heart was heavier than the feather, it was thrown to the floor, to be eaten by the god Amenti, and the soul then ceased to exist. To Egyptians, non-existence was the worst punishment imaginable.

For royalty, they created great monuments and tombs inscribed with their deeds, to make sure the ruler would not be forgotten by the living, i.e. to continue to exist on earth.

Greece: Burial was also in the earth, with the afterlife existing below ground. Greeks provided their dead with carefully carved stones, a reminder to the living of the deceased, and their names and honors due them.

Sons were named for their father’s father, and daughters named for their mother’s mother. The dead were to be continuously remembered and respected in order for their souls to continue to exist in the afterlife.

Mayans: The Maya believed life after death was dismal, fraught with peril and darkness. Their rites centered on directing the soul in the right path to avoid the underworld. The dead were buried with maize placed in the mouth as a symbol of rebirth of the soul and as a nourishment for its journey through the dark lands of the nether world. Bodies were positioned in underground graves and were aligned in accordance with the directions of the Mayan paradise (north or west). As the color red was associated with death, corpses were sprinkled with the shavings of red cinnabar and were then wrapped in cotton for burial. The Mayan afterlife was a terrifying place of demons determined to harm the soul on its journeys toward paradise, and perhaps the cinnabar was thought to disguise the soul in the presence of these infernal spirits.

Exemptions to this terrifying journey were granted to mothers who died in childbirth, to those fallen in battle, or in sacrifice or by suicide. An example of sacrifice was a player who scored a goal in their peculiar ball game, with the goal of kicking a stone ball through a high overhead hoop.

India: Cremation was the usual practice, except for the Zoroastrians who exposed the corpse to birds of prey. At times, elderly persons chose to be rowed into the middle of the Ganges River, where they would fling themselves into the sacred water and be swept away

The soul, for some believing Hindus, would rise to join an Oversoul or, alternatively, might descend back to earth in another incarnation. The latter soul would continue to take on as many bodies in as many lifetimes as necessary to free the self from this death/rebirthing cycle.

Rome: Romans honored those who killed themselves, in the belief that it was preferable to disgrace and dishonor. They had a persistent belief in the continual presence of ancestors, which led to guilt/suicide as the antidote to shame attaching to the family name.

Burial practices took place at night, to prevent disruptions of the daily activities of the city. A funeral procession began in the city and ended outside at the cemetery. The corpse was then either burned and the ashes gathered into an urn, or it was buried in a tomb.

Burials had to be proper, with appropriate rituals, or the person could return as a terrifying ghost. [3], [4]
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[1] personal communication with Avraham Tendler, research archaeologist in the Israel Antiquities Authority, 11/20/2019
[2] The JPS torah Commentary-Genesis, Jewish Publication Society, 1989, Nahum Sarna, pp. 150-160
[3] Ancient History Encyclopedia: https://www.ancient, eu/burial/
Joshua J. Mark
[4] The History Of Funeral Rites and Rituals Of The Ancient World: https://choicemutual.com/funeral-rituals-ancient-world/ Anthony Martin

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Irv Jacobs is a retired medical doctor who delights in Torah analysis. He often delivers a drosh at Congregation Beth El in La Jolla, and at his chavurah.