The neshama is very much there and very much aware of what is happening. We don't want to hurt the person any more by doing anything the soul can no longer do. Even speaking is seen as disrespectful. The bodies keep coming. One by one they are carried by the chevra kadisha into a room where the dead are addressed by their Hebrew name and asked forgiveness for any indignity .
Straw is placed on the floor and covered with a sheet.
The feet are placed facing the floor. Buckets are filled with lukewarm water and poured over the limbs. First they wash the head, then the right upper half of the body, the right lower half, the right leg, the left arm, the left lower half, the left leg. Water is not poured into the mouth or the nostrils. This is what was done, in that exact order, last week in Teaneck and West Hartford, and 56 other times, one by one, in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.