In a message dated 6/18/2004 1:04:10 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes:

> Aren't there regulations that require the casket go inside a concrete vault? 

The thing about this is, we Hebrew personages don't want no cee-ment between us and the woims, so we don't have to have 'em.  My guess is that the vault is a marketing device which theoretically is better for public health and preserves the deceased longer...but I for one don't quite see the point of preserving the deceased, much less paying extra for it.  When my friend George's (Catholic) daughter died 6 months or so ago, I stayed at the cemetery until they got her planted, and they do indeed use a little derrick to move both the casket and the concrete vault cover.  Another (also Catholic) friend of mine got hoisted and lowered with a backhoe.  It was clear that both of these burials were not supposed to be watched by friends and family.  On the other hand, at a Jewish funeral, the lowering of the casket and (at least partial) filling of the grave is the integral end of the ceremony. 

Does this requirement vary from State to State?
I would imagine it's at least nominally a health law, which could either be state or local, but with us hebes doing it our vaultless way, and you Christian types wanting precast concrete, seems to me that this is sort of hard to justify as a health requirement.

I see the things being transported on little trailers with a boom for lowering them into the hole. I gather these vaults are to prevent the sunken spots you see in old cemeteries where the ground starts to settle after the wood casket rots away. Not sure if they're also to protect the body. Is the lid of the vault sealed down I THINK THEY'RE LOOSE-LAID and is the concrete also sealed somehow to reduce its tendency to wick moisture? I DOUBT IT, AND CAN"T SEE WHY ANYBODY WOULD CARE, BUT WHO KNOWS?

Ralph