Chapter 199 – Interment and the Cemetery
199.1) The Torah condones placing the body in the soil itself.
199.2) Lay the body in a supine position, with the face upward.
199.3) Do not bury two bodies close to each other.
199.4) An uncircumcised male infant must be circumcised at the grave and named; a female infant must be named.
199.5) Do not place one coffin atop another.
199.6) Do not bury a wicked person next to a righteous one.
199.7) Do not take from the hand of another a pick axe or shovel used at a burial.
199.8) After interment, the bier must be turned over three times as an omen that judgment will be turned over to mercy.
199.9) If an orphan is present after the interment, people must step six feet away for the burial site and recite Psalm 49.
199.10) It is customary to pluck some grass and throw it behind your back saying Ps. 103.4, “Hear ye this, all ye peoples,” to represent the resurrection of the dead.
199.11) Do not remove the dead from a city where there is a cemetery to another city.
199.12) Do not open a grave after it is closed.
199.13) Do not leave a freshly dug grave open overnight.
199.14) Do not step upon graves.
199.15) Do not walk in burial grounds within four cubits (six feet) of a dead body or in a room where there is a dead body while wearing tefellin or tzitzit.
199.16) Do not indulge in levity in a burial ground.
199.17) Some communities have a custom of not putting up a tombstone until twelve months after the burial.