thoughts on burial

Hello faithful reader!

I was recently reading the bible and ruminating on Genesis.

In Genesis 22, you have Abraham offering Isaac for a sacrifice. At the end of the chapter, a concubine is mentioned: Reumah. The first few times I read this, I thought this was Abraham's concubine; it felt like a bit of a betrayal of Sarah. This seemed further compounded by the fact the next time she's mentioned is her burial. I will have to confirm - but the internet seems to think this was not Abraham's concubine.

Perhaps this was God's will - having two children from whom would come many nations was enough.

However, the main item I wanted to mention was Sarah's gravesite.

Abraham ultimately bought a small cave, and a field, for about $100,000 (400 shekels) [link]. I find this interesting for several reasons.

The first - that Abraham pays for a burial site. I'm not sure if this was because he didn't want his wife buried on his own land or that perhaps his culture preferred the revered/respected dead to be buried in a cave. Either way - Abraham is ensuring that, even if his primary land is destroyed/removed, he still has a spot for his wife and, eventually, for himself.

The second - that it was a cave. Other than the cave in which Jesus was buried, and this one, most of the experience I have with consideration for dead bodies is they go in boxes underground. This is a time before modern equipment, so perhaps the justification is that it is simpler to place the body in its casket and then place it on the ground. Far enough away that its smell will not be offensive (though perhaps they had technologies or oils or something to address this) and convenient enough that, to see your dead loved one, you wouldn't have to dig them up.

The third - that Abraham actually paid for the land. As I recall, Abraham was "given" the land by God a few chapters earlier - in Genesis 15 [link]. This is a great example of how we're supposed to respond to promises (land) that God intends for us to have.

 

-: irony :-

I have been intending to come back to this blog - but it's been almost two weeks since its inception.

It is so very easy to not capture my journey; this may be why so many blogs I saw had so few posts.

So, faithful reader - let me attend to this in such a way as to be a blessing to you.

Sans filler, as it were.

-: pondering :-

The essence of the need for education, as well as the study of physics, speak to the implicitly self-evident notion that making good decisions is not innate.

We often don't act in our own long-term best interest - and sometimes not even in the short term.

Physics, too, teaches us that our memories and experiences do not inform how the broader world or the universe work - which is why it is so many years between revolutionary revelations.

How then do we train ourselves to recognize these for ourselves and our loved ones via process instead of the one-off approach that seems standard?

-: idea :-

I think modern-day houses should come with several technologies: something that traps rainwater; something that can professionally locally filter water within a house; and the knitting of the two so that both rainwater and wastewater (urine, for instance) can be re-added to the water system of the house. A house with these amenities would reduce the load on the local city water, would potentially make it cheaper to own one's own home, and provide some degree of protection from problems that may occur when emergencies cause an interruption in municipal water. Imagine if everyone in a city had this setup and a hurricane hit - perhaps the store shelves selling water would not be empty!