CHAPTER SEVEN - Death and Mourning: End of Life Questions

A: BACKGROUND

5. The Technicalities of Death

Moving on from the theology of death to the technicalities associated with it, the first question to answer is: when exactly does death take place and how is it verified?

Death is assumed to have occurred when breathing stops and when pulse, heartbeat and corneal reflex have all ceased.
At this point, traditionally a feather is laid on the lips of the deceased and it is watched very carefully for about eight minutes to see if there is any sign of activity whatsoever. If none is forthcoming, the person is considered dead.
The eyes and mouth are then gently closed and the process of caring for and preparing the body for burial begins.
If the death occurs in a hospital, as so many deaths do today, the doctors will decide when death has occurred.

There is an entire procedure of cleansing and preparing the body, with customs varying from community to community.

One significant aspect is the fact that the work of preparing the body is usually done by a voluntary burial society that represents the community. In the traditional Jewish world, it was – and still is – common for the community to sport an entire host of voluntary institutions whose members take upon themselves various aspects of essential, charitable work. It is noteworthy that the most prestigious of these societies was the burial society, which was perceived as doing the most honoured work and whose members were esteemed as having achieved a high status of performance of Mitzvot within the community.

An interesting point about the name of the society: whereas the names of all the other voluntary groups, or societies, indicated the sphere of responsibility that the members had taken on themselves – such as the society for the provision of dowries for poor brides, the society for orphans etc. – the burial society is known by the name of the (Chevra Kadisha), the Holy Society.
Of all the societies whose work consisted in acts of Tzedakah, righting G-d’s world, this society alone was called “holy”. Perhaps it reflects the aforementioned idea that G-d took charge of the burial arrangements for Moses.

The members of the burial society take charge of all the preparations of the body for burial, releasing the family members from this necessity. The work of the Chevra Kadisha includes cleaning the body, dressing it in a plain shroud, guarding over the body till the burial – a body must never be left alone – and providing any necessary care for surviving relatives.

The body is to be cared for very carefully, in the sense that a dead person before burial must be given the same care as a living one.
Desecration or no mutilation of the body are, similarly, strictly prohibited out of – kavod hamet - respect for the dead. In this connection, Jewish law similarly does not permit autopsies, unless the police require them for an important investigation, or unless Science strongly stands to benefit from the procedure.