Transcription:
As I understand it, and I’m not a rabbi, okay, let’s make that clear, I’m not a rabbi. So, but my knowledge is that originally, actually in ancient times, the dead would be dressed in very, very fancy clothing. And individuals who were not of means couldn’t afford to bury their loved one in these fancy clothes. So they started abandoning the bodies and just leaving them because they couldn’t afford to really look after them. So there was one rabbi in particular said, we can’t have this anymore. And they went to this very simple linen type of shroud that everyone across the board now gets buried with. You’ve heard from other rabbis about death being the great equalizer. We are all buried, we’re all cared for in the same way. So these shrouds are made, they’re beautiful, they’re pristine, they’re white, made of linen. And the idea is that they represent what the high priest wore when they served in the Temple. So we’re all going back to our maker, ready for our day of judgment, so to speak, dressed in a pristine fashion. And the way we come into the world where a baby is washed after they come out of the womb, we do the same type of thing. We wash the body before the body is buried. The shrouds have no pockets because we have nothing that we take with us when we go other than our good deeds, which you can’t put in your pocket. So your valuables don’t go with you, your money doesn’t go with you, your clothing doesn’t go with you. So that would be my response in terms of why we wear shrouds. And we all do them, but we all have the same type of shrouds.