Touring Eretz Yisrael:A Trip To The Bet Shemesh Cemetery

In the Shulchan Aruch shiur that I learn in, we have been learning and reviewing the halachos of burial and mourning recently. We decided to take a trip to the Bet Shemesh cemetery,  that has recently been expanding its burial area, to see in practice how they design and build and bury.

It might not seem like an exciting trip, and why am I bothering to write about it, but t was really very interesting, and the Bet Shemesh cemetery (the city cemetery, not the more well-known cemetery called Eretz HaChaim that is situated alongside the highway outside of Bet Shemesh and mostly caters to imports) is really very nicely designed and laid out, I guess as cemeteries go.

So let's explain. The Bet Shemesh cemetery is built largely on a raised ground level. They raise the ground, I am told, because of the moist ground.  So on the ground level, they form these concrete boxes, in which the body is eventually placed, and they line them up in the area, and then they fill in the dirt between them. They then cement over the areas in between the concrete "boxes", thus having raised the ground level with newly dug graves prepared and waiting to be used (hopefully not until each person's 120 has been reached).

Then, as you can see inside the concrete box, there is a ledge that is formed as part of the molding of the box. That ledge allows the body to rest on the ground below, and concrete slabs are then placed on the ledge, with at least a tefach of space above to prevent the tumah from continuing on upward. At the time of construction, the box is put into place, then the concrete slabs are placed on the ledge. The grave is then filled in with dirt put on top of the slab, and then a thin layer of cement above the dirt.

Here you can see the dirt on top of the ledge of a newly placed concrete box. No body is yet buried inside this box.

These are new concrete boxes setting to dry in the molds as they are being prepared for the new section of the cemetery

These are the frames of "rebar" for reinforcing the concrete boxes when they will be poured.

After analyzing how the graves are made and how they are placed, we looked at the older part of the cemetery to see how they separate the section for kohanim along with some other issues - how they deal with burying men and women near each other, spouses, etc..

At the entrance/exit of the cemetery, these signs are hanging on the wall offering materials needed for mourning homes, such as chairs, prayer books, torah scrolls, candles, etc. along with a large sign displaying the blessing one makes upon entering a cemetery when not having been to one in 30 days.

While perhaps not a typical sightseeing tour, it was a very interesting learning experience. May we not need it in practice until 120.