Why are there cemeteries designated for particular sinners? Does not death bring atonement? I once learned that suicides were placed at the back of the cemetery. Have I remembered this incorrectly?
Rus bas Sarah, Boca Raton, Fl. USA
The Gemara in Sanhedrin 47b proves from the Mishnah cited by Rashi here that death alone is not sufficient to bring atonement, but burial and the subsequent decay of the flesh is also necessary for atonement. After the flesh had decayed the bones were then collected and the person who had been condemned to death could now be buried in his ancestral burial place.
It is true that suicides are buried in a special place in the cemetery. Suicide is worse because the death does not bring atonement at all. This is because since the death itself was such a serious transgression of the Torah, it is illogical that such a death should provide an atonement.
KOL TUV
D. Bloom