Does a dead body in a casket really weigh more than a live body in a casket? Even though we say that 'Chai Noseh es Atzmoh', does this not refer to the fact that a live person can cling to the carrier and thus make it easier to be carried, while a dead body goes limp or that rigor mortis has set in and is thus unable to assist in being carried? And if so, wouldn't a dead or a live body in a casket would weigh the same. Then what is then the meaning of the words "D'inhu yoday d'chaya kalil mimeysa'?
Kol Tuv
alex lebovits, toronto, canada
Part of the natural decomposition of the body after death is the rapid multiplication of bacteria and other microorganisms in the body which feed off of the nutrient-rich fluids of the body. It could be that this microbial population explosion leads to a temporary increase in body mass (obviously, at some point decomposition leads to a decrease in weight as the body dries up). There does not have to be a conservation of mass inherent in the decomposition process - i.e. body mass being converted into microbial mass - because the microbes could be drawing in gases from the surrounding air as part of their metabolism which would add to the overall weight.
Kol Tuv,
Yonasan Sigler