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The term chevra kadisha () gained its modern sense of "burial society" in the nineteenth century. It is an organization of Jewish men and women who see to it that the bodies of deceased Jews are prepared for burial according to Jewish tradition and are protected from desecration, willful or not, until burial. Two of the main requirements are the showing of proper respect for a corpse, and the ritual cleansing of the body and subsequent dressing for burial. It is usually referred to as a burial society in English.
At the heart of the society's function is the ritual of tahara "purification". The body is first thoroughly cleansed of dirt, bodily fluids and solids, and anything else that may be on the skin, and then is ritually purified by immersion in, or a continuous flow of, water from the head over the entire body. Tahara may refer to the whole process or the ritual purification. Once the body is purified, the body is dressed in tachrichim, or shrouds, of white pure muslin or linen garments made up of ten pieces for a man and twelve for a woman, which are identical for each Jew and which symbolically recall the garments worn by the High Priest of Israel. Once the body is shrouded, the coffin is closed. For burial in the Holy Land (including modern Israel), a casket is not used in most cemeteries.
The society may also provide shemira to guard against body snatching, vermin, or desecration until burial. In some communities, this is done by people close to the departed or by paid shomrim hired by the funeral home. At one time, the danger of the body being stolen was very real; in modern times, the watch has become a way of honoring the deceased.
A specific task of the burial society is tending to the dead with no next of kin. These are termed a met mitzvah (מת מצוה "mitzvah corpse"), as tending to a met mitzvah overrides virtually any other positive commandment (mitzvat aseh), an indication of the high premium the Torah places on the honor of the dead.
Many burial societies hold one or two annual fast days and organise regular study sessions to remain up-to-date with the relevant articles of Halacha. In addition, most burial societies also support families during the shiva (traditional week of mourning) by arranging Jewish prayer, meals and other facilities.
While burial societies were, in Europe, generally a community function, in the United States, it has become far more common for societies to be organized by neighbourhood synagogues. In the late 19th and early 20th century, burial societies were formed as (mutual aid societies) in the United States. Some landsmanshaftn were burial societies, while others were independent of the traditional burial society. There were 20,000 such landsmanshaftn in the U.S. at one time.Weisser, Michael R., A Brotherhood of Memory: Jewish Landsmanshaftn in the New World, Cornell University Press, 1985, , pp. 13–14
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