Is the use of all wood coffins a Jewish law or a custom?
Unbeknown to most people and many contemporary Jewish authorities, there is no known written Traditional Jewish Law that requires all wood coffin construction. On the contrary, in centuries past, the goal or criteria found in Jewish text was to purchase the lowest price coffin regardless of how it was made. A letter written in 1965 to Hillel Jacobson, Executive Director of the United Hebrew Community of New York from Horav Kalman Avraham Goldberg ZTL, Rabbi of the organization quotes the following: That Harav Hagoan Rabbi Eliyahu Henkin ZTL, the President of Agudas Harabonim and Ezras Torah in New York, and a recognized and leading Talmudic scholar of his time could not find such a written Jewish Law and that nails or metal are permitted to be used. The entire letter and its English translation can be read on this site. This is not to say that the present custom originally initiated in New York should not be followed. Until 1963 most plain coffins and caskets were manufactured with bot
