Transcription:
Beit HaChaim is a home of life, and it’s said euphemistically because we all know that it’s a home for the dead. But we want to be optimistic and appreciate the fact that the soul continues living. So we call it a Beit HaChaim in order to acknowledge that even though the body is no longer here, the body is merely a shell of what remains immortally. I guess there’s one other thing that I ought to mention is that so many of the Jewish practices revolve around a very strong tradition in our belief system in something called the resurrection of the dead, that it’s something that we affirm multiple times over the course of the day, that G-d is Mechaye HaMeitim, that G-d resurrects the dead. We very much believe that there will come a time sometime in the future of human history where all of the dead will come back to life, and the body and soul will be reunited, either temporarily or permanently. And it’s for that reason that we are so careful to take care of the body, to treat it with the utmost of respect, to allow it to decompose naturally, so that whatever remnants there are of the body will be able to be rebuilt for the time of the resurrection.