DEUT1081 K'vod ha'meit [the honor due to the dead] also dictates that burial occur as quickly as possible, ideally within a day of the death. To leave a body unburied and exposed for longer than that is regarded as an affront both to God (in whose image human beings are created) and to the dignity of the deceased. This ruling is based on the biblical law that even a person executed because of a capital offence must be buried on the day of his death [this verse]. If the Torah regards it as an affront to leave the body of a person who committed a capital crime unburied, how much more so, Jewish law reasons, should one not allow the body of a regular person to remain unburied. … although burial within a day (or at least on the day following death; a person might die at 8 a.m. and the funeral take place the following morning at eleven) is generally adhered to, Jewish law permits a delay in certain circumstances, these also dictated by k'vod ha-meit. The most common reason is to allow for the arrival of close relatives coming from a distance. Since it is assumed that the dead person would have wanted these people present, delaying the funeral in effect honors his or her wishes. Such a situation happens, for example, when relatives must fly in from another country. [The reason, though, has to be substantial. David Zinner notes that families will sometimes ask to delay a funeral for inappropriate reasons, such as to allow a grandchild time to finish a research paper for school.] There are other reasons for delaying a funeral. For example, funerals are not generally conducted on mid-to-late Friday afternoons, since this can lead to extreme time pressure or even to desecration of the Sabbath. Therefore, if somebody dies on Friday, the funeral usually takes place on Sunday.