The importance that family and society has accorded to a dignified burial is not a modern concept, but a Jewish value that dates back to Biblical times. The Torah emphasizes the obligation to accord respect to the dead, especially in Israel, and records personal burial stories such as Abraham's acquisition of a burial plot for his wife Sarah. Many of our modern day burial customs have their roots in practices of earlier periods: Jews buried their dead in the ground, apparently, already in the time of the Bible, unlike the Egyptians who embalmed their dead. The deceased were interred in simple cloth garments without coffins since the time of the Mishnah. During part of the Talmudic period it was customary to ‘collect the bones’ a year after burial to transfer them to a coffin.

People of those eras attached great importance to participation in the act of burial and to accompaniment of the dead, considering this act a responsibility for both the family and the community. Early sources also emphasize the importance of prompt burial to accord the deceased respect, deeming it a value that supersedes other values and prohibitions. Nevertheless, Jewish law does allow burial to be delayed in certain circumstances, and nowadays burials are often delayed in order to enable relatives to come pay their last respects.