When people say they’re choosing cremation because it’s cheaper, they’re not wrong. Traditional burials can easily cost upward of $25,000 once cemetery plots, coffins, vaults, and services are included. Cremation, by comparison, averages closer to $2,000. The math speaks for itself.

But money isn’t the whole story.

In my experience, cost is only part of the decision. Many families I meet have other reasons—deeper, more existential ones. They tell me they don’t want to “take up space.” They say no one visits graves anymore, and they don’t expect their children to visit theirs. They want to be part of the earth again—not sealed away in boxes within boxes.

Something more is happening here than financial pragmatism. Behind the rising rate of cremation in America lies a spiritual unease, even a longing: the desire to return to the earth in a way that feels honest, natural, and unburdened.

When Jewish leaders respond to cremation, the conversation too often stops at what Judaism forbids. We repeat that cremation is not part of Jewish tradition, that it desecrates the body, that it stirs memories of the Holocaust, and that it pollutes the air. All of that is true—and yet, by focusing solely on prohibition, we may be missing the deeper question of why so many Jews are turning to it in the first place.

The truth........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)