Visiting a Cemetery

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This is the approved revision of this page, as well as being the most recent.

Proper Behavior

  1. At a cemetery one must tuck in his strings, as it is לועג לרש, meaning appears like one is scoffing at the dead (Mishlei 17:5), as it expresses that they are poor and exempt from Mitzvot and are not able to fulfill them, while we do fulfill them. [1]
  2. According to some poskim one shouldn't carry a sefer torah in a cemetery.[2]

Washing One's Hands

  1. After visiting a cemetery a person should do netilat yadayim (wash his hands). There is a discussion if this applies to someone who visited a non-Jewish cemetery.[3]

Reciting a Beracha

see Brachot on Sights - Bracha for Seeing a Cemetery

Who Can/Should Visit?

Pregnant Women

see Pregnancy and Labor - Cemetery

Sources

  1. Shulchan Aruch 23:1 based on Gemara Berachot 18a, Kitzur Shulchan Aruch of Rav Rephael Baruch Toledano, siman 9, laws of Tzitzit in a cemetery, seif 1. see https://torah.org/learning/mishna-berura-s23/ torah.org for greater detail
  2. Bach YD 282:3 and Taz 282:3 are strict to forbid carrying a sefer torah within 4 amot of a grave. Nodeh Beyehuda OC 109 discusses the matter and isn't certain that it is forbidden.
  3. Teshuvot Vehanhagot 2:581 writes that there's no need to wash one's hands after visiting a non-Jewish cemetery. However, Chashukei Chemed m"k 8b holds otherwise that a person should wash his hands even after visiting a non-Jewish cemetery. See also Yad Halevi v. 1.