GEN418 Jewish law opposes cremation, and regards it as an extreme lack of respect for the dead body.  Although no explicit biblical law prohibits cremation, the prophet Amos, writing over 2,700 years ago, speaks of the punishment of the nation of Moab for its many sins, specifying that it had “burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime” Amos 2:1.  The Torah takes burial and the gradual decomposition of the dead body for granted.  Genesis 23 details the great lengths to which Abraham went to purchase a large burial plot for his wife, Sarah, which later served as the burial plot for him and many of his descendants.  Obviously, Abraham would have saved time and money if he had arranged for Sarah’s body to be cremated, but he didn’t.  Also, God’s burial of Moses serves as an important precedent for Jews, since Torah law instructs its adherents to imitate God Deuteronomy 28:9.  Maimonides rules that, if prior to death, a person expresses an explicit wish not to be buried (but presumably to be cremated instead), this wish should be ignored Laws of Mourning 12:1.  Nonetheless, if a person is cremated, there is no explicit prohibition against burying the ashes in a Jewish cemetery, although many Jewish cemeteries do not allow cremated remains to be buried on their grounds.  TELVOL 1:100-101