visitation stones
{{Short description|Jewish bereavement practice}}
{{EngvarB|date=April 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
File:Hillel Yaffe's grave.jpg]]
The act of placing visitation stones is significant in Jewish bereavement practices. Small stones are placed by people who visit Jewish graves in an act of remembrance or respect for the deceased. The practice is a way of participating in the mitzvah (commandment) of burial. It is customary to place the stone with the left hand.{{cite web|title=Placing a Stone|url=https://www.shiva.com/learning-center/commemorate/stone/|publisher=Shiva.com|accessdate=22 April 2020|archive-date=21 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421145959/https://www.shiva.com/learning-center/commemorate/stone/|url-status=live}}
History
File:Visitation stones on Jewish headstones.jpg
Marking a grave with stones was customary in Biblical times before the adoption of gravestones.{{cite book|author=Julie Bates|title=Beckett's Art of Salvage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CtAoDwAAQBAJ|date=19 April 2017|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-16704-9|page=215|access-date=22 April 2020|archive-date=27 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220227021426/https://books.google.com/books?id=CtAoDwAAQBAJ|url-status=live}} The oldest graves in the Old Cemetery in Safed are piles of rocks with a more prominent rock bearing an inscription.
It is not customary in Judaism to leave flowers at a grave after visiting. It is believed to be more appropriate to give money to charity that could otherwise be spent on flowers.{{cite book|author1=Barbara Binder Kadden|author2=Bruce Kadden|title=Teaching Jewish Life Cycle: Traditions and Activities|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8igR1GnZfrcC|year=1997|publisher=Behrman House, Inc|isbn=978-0-86705-040-0|page=107|access-date=22 April 2020|archive-date=27 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220227021426/https://books.google.com/books?id=8igR1GnZfrcC|url-status=live}} In addition, cut flowers eventually die, but stones are enduring and do not die.{{cite book |last1=Klam |first1=Julie |title=The almost legendary Morris sisters : a true story of family fiction |date=10 August 2021 |publisher=Riverhead Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0735216426 |page=93 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A_c3EAAAQBAJ&dq=why+do+jews+put+stones+on+graves&pg=PA93 |access-date=7 December 2021 |archive-date=27 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220227021426/https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Almost_Legendary_Morris_Sisters/A_c3EAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=why+do+jews+put+stones+on+graves&pg=PA93&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}
Formerly the tradition might have been to insert notes into crevices in the grave marker. This tradition may be related to the practice of placing notes in the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Letters may have been formerly written to the deceased and held down by a stone; the stone would have been left after the paper blew away.
The tradition has also been noted outside of Jewish mourning practices; Robert MacFarlane notes the presence of stones placed by mourners in the alcoves of the recesses of resting stones in ancient Ireland.
Interpretation
File:David B. Pfeifer grave with stones.jpg
Various explanations have been given for the origin of the practice:
- Stone is frequently used in the torah as a metaphor for God in Judaism
- To ensure that kohanim should not be affected by corpse impurity by inadvertently coming into close proximity with a grave
- To ensure that the mitzvah is maintained by marking the grave with rocks
- To show respect and let others know that the grave has been recently visited.{{cite web |last1=Shurpin |first1=Yehuda |title=Why Do Jews Put Pebbles on Tombstones? |url=https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3002484/jewish/Why-Do-Jews-Put-Pebbles-on-Tombstones.htm#footnote4a3002484 |website=chabad |publisher=Chabad-Lubavitch Media Center |access-date=7 December 2021 |archive-date=7 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207173517/https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3002484/jewish/Why-Do-Jews-Put-Pebbles-on-Tombstones.htm#footnote4a3002484 |url-status=live }}
- It happens that the Hebrew word for pebble is "tz'ror" but the word also means "bond" in Hebrew.{{cite web |title=Stones On Jewish Monuments- A Symbolic Praxis (Guest post by Morgan and Basil) |url=https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/archaeograves/2017/05/27/stones-on-jewish-monuments-a-symbolic-praxis-guest-post-by-morgan-and-basil/ |website=Online Academic Community |publisher=Elegant Themes |access-date=7 December 2021 |archive-date=7 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207175044/https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/archaeograves/2017/05/27/stones-on-jewish-monuments-a-symbolic-praxis-guest-post-by-morgan-and-basil/ |url-status=live }}
See also
- {{annotated link|Chinese burial money}}
- {{annotated link|Coins for the dead}}
- {{annotated link|List of mortuary customs}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{commonscat inline|Pebbles on Jewish gravestones}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Visitation stones}}
Category:Bereavement in Judaism