FUNERAL FOLKLORE: KEYS IN THE COFFIN

QUESTION:

A bereaved family insisted that their deceased father’s keys be put into his hand, to be buried with him. Is there any justification for this custom? (Asked by Louis J. Freehof, Sinai Memorial Chapel, San Francisco, California.)

ANSWER:

THERE IS AN understandable tendency for strange customs to grow up around the process of burial. The surviving relatives are so anxious to do everything they can do for their deceased dear one that almost any practice that they hear about they would tend to observe. It is for this psychological reason that the authorities are especially alert to avoid any unjustified practice or observance.

However, this particular practice of putting a key in the hand of the deceased does happen to have some vague rootage in Jewish law and tradition. In the post-Talmudic booklet Evel Rabassi (Semachos 8:7), there is the following statement: ‘ ‘We may loosen the hair of brides [who have died], uncover the faces of bridegrooms [usually the faces of the dead are covered], and hang the deceased’s key and ledger book on the coffin because of grief.” Then it adds that when Samuel Ha-Katan died, they hung his key and his ledger on his coffin because he had no child (hence there was special grief by his colleagues at his death). This statement is repeated by Asher ben Yechiel in his code (Moed Katan 3:8 1). His son, Jacob ben Asher, repeats this statement in his code, the Tur (Yore Deah 350), and Joseph Caro carries it over in the Shulchan Aruch (Yore Deah 350).

However, it is to be observed that this chance custom of the deceased’s keys and ledger being buried with him is deprecated by Joel Sirkes (the Bach) in his commentary to the Tur. He says this is a mistaken custom—we do not observe it, and we should prevent people who want to observe it. This warning of the Bach against the custom is repeated by the Be’er Hetev to the, Shulchan Aruch.

The custom of putting the keys with the dead, referred to in this question, is objectionable from another point of view. The custom of burying the key and the ledger, mentioned above and strongly objected to by the Bach, really was that these things were put in or hung outside of the coffin and not put into the hand of the deceased. Closing the hand of the deceased around any object or even just clenching the hand without an object in it is objectionable to law and custom.

The following is the statement by the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (197:5): “It is necessary to be watchful that the dead should not close his hands. As for the custom in some cases to close the fingers, this custom must be abolished. Also, that some put into his hand rods they call geplach, this is a foolish custom.”

(By the way, the custom of twigs of geplach put into the hands of the deceased is evidently symbolic of having a cane or walking stick at the time of the Resurrection.)

To sum up: The custom of putting keys into the hands of the deceased is objectionable, therefore, on two grounds: first, that the Bach prohibits the custom as being against our prevailing usage, and second, because it involves clenching the hands of the dead, which is also objection-able.