SHORT:
Absolutely not. Burial is a mitzvah. Cremation is not permitted under any circumstances.
LONG:
There are actually two Torah commandments that refer to burial – a positive commandment (to bury) and a negative commandment (not to leave a body without burial), both given in Deuteronomy 21:23. Cremating a body violates both.
The question is why burial is so important.
Before we delve into this question, it must be noted that we can never understand the “reason” for a mitzvah. Mitzvos are Divine, and by definition beyond our comprehension. That said, it is possible to have insight into the meaning of a mitzvah in the context of the Torah worldview.
With that caveat, we can answer the question on a variety of levels: on a simple and rational level, on a symbolic level, and on a level that relates to the most mystical understandings of the purpose of Creation.
- RATIONAL
- SYMBOLIC
- MYSTICAL
Even on the very simplest level, it makes perfect sense that a body should be buried in the earth. The Torah describes the first human being as being formed from the dust of the earth. (Genesis 2:7) And the instruction to bury the deceased is first mentioned immediately after death is first mentioned.
After the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, G-d tells Adam, "You will return to the ground, for from it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return." (Genesis 3:19)
Burial is part of the natural cycle of life: our body was formed from the earth, and when it dies, it is returned to the earth.
When we consider the act of cremation, we can easily see that it is the polar opposite of burial. Burial is gentle, organic, and natural — a return to our source. Cremation is violent and unnatural, an utterly destructive process in which every shred of our humanity — even the DNA that marks us as human – is destroyed.
It should be no wonder that cremation is forbidden by the Torah.
The Torah introduces the commandment to bury the deceased in a very specific — and highly unusual — context.
If a man is guilty of a capital offense and is put to death, and you hang their body on the gallows, you may not allow it to remain on the gallows overnight; you must surely bury it the same day, for a hanged body is an affront to G-d. (Deuteronomy 21:22-23)
Why does Torah introduce the mitzvah of burial with reference to a criminal? And not just a petty criminal, but one whose crimes are so abhorrent that they deserve to be put to death?
Moreover, while Torah permits capital punishment, it has tremendous trepidation about allowing the court to end a life, even the life of a murderer. The Mishnah says that a court that puts even one person to death in 70 years is considered “murderous.” (Makkos 1:10) Why would Torah use this very rare case to introduce burial, a mitzvah that applies to everyone?
In fact, this specific situation is used in order for the Torah to emphasize that even someone whose crimes are so great that they are being put to death, even this person is deserving of burial; even their body may not be desecrated by being left exposed.
The verse adds a yet sharper point: the sight of a hanged body is an “affront to G-d.”
But there is a yet deeper reason for burial.
Adam, the first man, was actually created to be immortal. Death was only decreed upon him later, when he had introduced sin to the world. However, each of us — and the world itself – will eventually return to the original, pure, immortal state in which we were first created. At that time, our souls will be reunited with our bodies.
When the body is buried in the earth, it is not merely being returned to its source. It is being "planted." In the same way that burying a seemingly lifeless seed triggers a process that generates a new plant, burying a body triggers a process that in the future will lead to the creation of our bodies anew.
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