Optional parental preparation:

1. What happens when a person dies? (Watch Swiss neuroscientists and study my commentary on neuroscience regarding Pâ•râsh•atꞋ bᵊ-Reish•itꞋ, concerning how our perceptions of ourselves are not so dissimilar, as we assume, from operating a character in a computer game. Switching off the game switches-off the character, but doesn't end our sentience / nëphꞋësh. It's merely a transfer of our self-perspective.

2. Kᵊna•anꞋ ossuary funerary custom v Egyptian mummy-coffin funerary custom –

   1. Archeological photos: ossuaries of Pâ•qidꞋ Ya•a•qovꞋ "ha-Tza•diqꞋ" Bën-Yo•seiphꞋ, Yᵊho•shuꞋa Bën-Yo•seiphꞋ, et al. in our History Museum @ www.netzarim.co.il

      In ancient Kᵊna•anꞋ, the funerary custom was for a family to purchase a cave, as Avᵊrâ•hâmꞋ did, which was adapted into a permanent family sepulcher. Since a sepulcher-cave provided only limited space for repeated burials of family members, by Roman times the practice of burial in a sepulcher-cave had necessitated the space-saving adaptation of burying only the bones in an ossuary. Each ossuary was long enough to admit the longest leg bones. For example, the ossuary of RibꞋi Yᵊho•shuꞋa (IAA 80-503) measures 65 cm (≈23⅝ in) long × 26 cm (≈10¼) wide × 30 cm (≈11¾ in) high. The ossuary of Pâ•qidꞋ Ya•a•qovꞋ "ha-Tza•diqꞋ", Bën-Yo•seiphꞋ (IAA 80-509) measures 57.5 cm (≈22⅝ in) long x 26 cm (≈10¼ in) wide x 30 cm (≈11¾ in) high. In other words, the exterior dimensions of each are about 2 ft x 1 ft x 1 ft.

      A network of niches, coves or chambers were hewn into the sepulcher-cave for the permanent storage of the ossuaries. Interment in an ossuary, in turn, required temporary burials of one year to allow the flesh to decompose, leaving behind only the bones. Families carved a bench into the stone on one side of the main entrance of the sepulcher-cave complex where the body was initially prepped (cleaned, perfumed and wrapped in linen) to remain during the initial year.

      • At death – When a family member died, the body was placed on the stone bench, perfumed, wrapped in linen and sealed into the sepulcher for one year in order for the flesh to decompose, leaving behind only the bones to be placed in an ossuary.

      • At the end of 3 Days – Early in the adoption of this custom, it was discovered that there had always been, on rare occasion, isolated occasions when, because ancient methods were unable to detect weak signs of life, a person who was only in a coma had been mistaken for dead and buried! Probably, they didn't learn this until they adopted the custom of ossuary burial, which required opening the sepulcher after one year to transfer the bones from the stone bench into the ossuary. Before that, no one had ever dreamed of checking a grave to see if the occupant had tried to get out. Yet, when they began opening sepulchers after a year to collect the bones and place them in an ossuary, on rare occasions someone would discover, to their horror, signs that could only have been made by the "deceased", who had revived in the sealed sepulcher and tried to get out. Thus, their bones were found not on the bench where they body had been left, but upright against the stone that sealed the sepulcher – trying to get out! To their ancient mind, this was a person who had been resurrected to a second life – and origin of the belief in purgatory before the death process was completed.

        Consequently, the additional practice evolved of the closest relatives of the deceased gathering at the end of 3 days in the tomb to unseal the sepulcher and check if the dead had been resurrected. If the deceased was still dead, the body was perfumed again and sealed in the sepulcher for the remainder of a year.

      • First Annual Memorial – At the first annual commemoration of the death, the closest relatives of the deceased gathered to unseal the sepulcher, collect the bones and transfer them into the ossuary. The ossuary was then permanently sealed into the appropriate niche in the sepulcher cave complex (until the next family member was added).

   2. The custom in Egypt, however, was to mummify the body of the deceased, wrap it in white bandages, place the wrapped mummy in a decorated coffin and then seal it in a sepulcher. 

3. Contemplate the implications of "forever" with your child.

Questions you might anticipate that your child might raise and be prepared to discuss:

1. What does terminal mean related to sickness?

2. What does implore mean?

3. What does paternal (v maternal) mean?

4. What's an inheritance?

5. What's an indiscretion? What did Rᵊu•veinꞋ do?

6. What does recount mean? (narrate a review or count again)

7. What does accumulate mean?