Final And Proper Honors
‘In A Grave Not His Own?’
(Baba Basra 112b)
The land in Eretz Yisrael that was apportioned to Bnei Yisrael by Yehoshua when they entered the land remains their eternal possession for all generations. Thus, if a person sells an ancestral land (s’dei achuza) in Eretz Yisrael, though the buyer has the right to use that land for any and all purposes, it nevertheless reverts back to its original owner (or his heirs) at the culmination of Yovel.
The Gemara (111b) cites Joshua 24:33 –“And Elazar ben Aharon died and he was buried in Givat Pinchas” – and deduces that Pinchas (Elazar’s son) already owned this property while his father was alive; in other words, he did not inherit it from his father. The Gemara suggests that he inherited it from his late wife, which proves that a wife is inherited by her husband, not by her father or brother.
The Gemara assumes that he inherited the property – as opposed to having bought it – because Pinchas would never have buried his father in a purchased property which would have to be returned to its original owner at the culmination of Yovel. Pinchas wouldn’t have wanted his father, the righteous Elazar, a high priest, to be buried in a grave that didn’t not belong to him. The Nimukei Yosef (ad loc.) explains that it isn’t dignified for someone to be buried in a gravesite owned by another.
Even A Pauper
The Chasam Sofer (Responsa Yoreh Deah 331, citing our Gemara as his source) writes that the prevalent custom is for everyone to pay for his own grave. Even a pauper who lacks the means to pay full price nevertheless pays something for his own plot. He points out that in Chumash we find Abraham purchasing a burial plot, Me’aras HaMachpela, from Ephron HaChiti, for Sarah, himself, and his heirs.
Really His?
Dover Meisharim (Responsa Vol. 1:4) points out that Elazar seemingly wasn’t buried in his own burial spot; he was buried in a spot that his son, Pinchas, owned!
Dover Meisharim answers that Pinchas perhaps gave the plot to his father as a gift (the Rashba suggests that a dead person can acquire things), and R. Meir (Bechoros 52b) rules that a gift does not return to its owner at Yovel. He also suggests that the requirement of “kever shelo – his plot” is satisfied by the son owning the plot.
We might add that the example the Chasam Sofer cites – Abraham buying a plot for Sarah – can prove either hypothesis. Abraham may have gifted the plot to Sarah after her death or he did nothing of the kind, but all was in order because his ownership of the plot was sufficient.