[Avodah] composting?

[Akiva Miller]

.
R' Joel Rich asked:
> A recent Wall Street Journal article examined an emerging
> practice of human composting as a solution to cemetery space
> shortages. The process involves natural organic reduction
> transforming bodies into nutrient-rich soil using microbes,
> clover, hay, and straw in sealed vessels over 40 days....
> What does halacha has to say on this?

Disclaimer: I know nothing of this procedure other than what was written
here.

I concede that clover, hay, and straw do sound very natural and organic.
But "sealed vessels over 40 days" does *not* sound natural. I suggest that
it might be more accurate to describe this process not as "natural", but as
"human-assisted nature", or "human-accelerated nature".

>From the few halachos that I know of this, we require the decomposition to
be *totally* natural, and this ain't that.

(If anyone suggests that drilling holes into a wooden coffin also
constitutes accelerated decomposition, I would respond vehemently that
those holes do no acceleration. Rather, to a small extent, they merely
remove the impediment of the existence of the wood coffin - which some omit
entirely.)

Akiva Miller
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