A Word About Chevra Kadisha

In Honor of Dr. Schild zt"l, a pillar of our community in Rhawnhurst Philadelphia, Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetsky shlit"a, Rosh Yeshiva of Tamudic Academy of Philadelphia, gave a class on Chevra Kadisha.
Some of the thoughts are that G-d creates the body to house the holy soul, and the body is a holy vessel for that soul. We treat the dead body with the utmost respect. We do not burn it, or harvest its organs.
We have a chevra kadisha which performs a ritual preparation for burial. It is a mistake not to talk about this when someone performs this ritual commandment. A person who is part of the chevra kadisha should say, "I just performed the ritual preparation according to Jewish law on such-and-such a person (who passed away)." Rabbi Kaminetsky told of a story where confusion occured because things were kept hush-hush, in a different type of situation, when a woman got divorced according to Jewish Law but it was kept hush-hush. When later she tried to get remarried, rumors were that no one had ever heard she was divorced, so how could she remarry. The same is with a dead person, it should be publicized that they were prepared for burial according to the Jewish Law.
Chevra kadisha is done by women for women, and by men for men. Unmarried persons should not be recruited to join, but if someone who is unmarried is asking to join because they want to participate, the case can be considered individually and it is possible he/she can be allowed to join.
The utmost consideration is the wants of the dead person, not of the family. For instance, if the family wants to break Jewish Custom this is considered contrary to the dead person's wishes, and Jewish Custom should be followed. Two customs are the most important. One, that the body be treated according to the Jewish Law, and the other that the coffin is not re-opened. In that sense, there is no reason for any problems to occur. One example would be that the family wants the body dressed in a different outfit than the traditional shroud. In such a case, the family's concerns should be considered as well (secondarily), since they are in a terrible state of sadness, so it is not necessary to argue with them, just let them believe what they want about how the outfit was used in the process and do not return the outfit to them. But at the same time do not deviate from the custom of using the shroud.
Sometimes there is blood and it is impossible to do the ritual without exacerbating the wounds. In such a case not exacerbating the wounds takes precedence over the ritual. For example, if the ritual is to pour water over the body, but this will exacerbate a wound, then the ritual does not take precedence. The ritual is not performed because it would cause the wound to get worse.
The Talmud refers to burying the dead as "True Kindness" because there is no possibility of the dead person thanking the burial society members.

Thanks to Mendel Simpson for relating these thoughts to me from the class. Also thanks to Dr. Mandelbaum for arranging the class, as well as his extensive work running the Chevra Kadisha.