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Correspondence

June 6, 1974

Letter to Mrs. Roth about Replacing Grave Headstone (1974)

Practical Halacha Death & Mourning
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The Question of Death (1975)

(Gave at shiur to Hebra Kadisha Saturday night, Oct. 4, 1975) See Y. D. #338. The Sh. A. gives no indication as to the origin of this ודוי שכיב מרע. Apparently, its earliest source is in Joshua, the story of Akhan, where Joshua tells him ותן תודה, i.e., confess, and Akhan replies, כזאת וכזאת עשיתי etc. From there we go to the Mishnah that all those executed by Beit Din are required to confess. However, I believe there are fundamental differences between ודוי שכיב מראמ and the confession of executed criminals
Practical Halacha Death & Mourning

Correspondence

Letter from Dr. Weiss to Abraham Jhirad about the Halachic Permissibility of Using an Old Cemetery for New Graves (1961)

To: Mr. A.D. Jhirad, From: Dr. Samson R. Weiss, Subject: Addition to Old Cemetery. Concerning your inquiry about the use of the old cemetary for additional graves, please be informed that Rabbi Lamm discussed this matter with the appropriate Halachic authorities who agreed with him on the following ruling: You state that the average height of the coffin is 15 to 18 inches. Therefore, the same height of additional earth must be placed on top of the old cemetary. Then, new graves may be placed on this cemetary by virtue of this additional layer of soil.cc: Rabbi Norman Lamm
Practical Halacha Death & Mourning India

Correspondence

Letter to Baruch Gelernter about the Halachic Permissibility of Reinterment (1968)

Dear Mr. Gelernter: I enclose the material you requested. I attended to it as soon as I received your letter, despite an indisposition which kept me confined to my house. I hope the enclosed proves helpful. Sincerely, Rabbi Norman Lamm P.S. For purposes of identification to the Court you may mention that I am the Rabbi of The Jewish Center, assoc. prof. Jewish philosophy at Yeshiva University, author of articles on Jewish Law that have been quoted in U.S. Supreme Court decisions, and member of the Jewish Law Commission of the Rabbinical Council of America.To Whom It May Concern: I do hereby certify that it is forbidden, according to Jewish law, to disinter the remains of a person in order to rebury him in another cemetery. Whereas Jewish law does make specific exceptions, these conditions are hot satisfied in the case of the deceased Robert I. Gold, whose disinterment is being rweaquested by his survivors. The removal of a body to a “family plot" is permitted only after such an agea has been so designated not by an oral declaration or even contractually, but only by the actual burial therein of a close relative. In the present case, there is no member of the Gold family interred in this new area, and hence Jewish law does not consider a “family plot" such that removal from another grave for reinterment here is permitted.Sources for this decision are:1.R.Ezekiel Landau, “Responsa Noda Bi'tyehudah", Vol.I, Sec. YeDes 89.2. R.Eliezer Deutsch,"Duda'ei Hasadeh", No.6.3. 8.Hayyim Fischel Epstien, "Teshuvah Shelemah", Vol.II,Sec.Y.D.,16.4. R.Jekuthiel Judah Greenwald, "Kol Bo al Avelut" Chap.III, No.6, esp. PPe 234-237,Signed: Rabbi Norman Lamm
Practical Halacha Death & Mourning