I would like to know what the difference is between a present-day grave and the manner of internment in the time of the Gemorah. Did a kever not have the same connotation then as today?
My question arose out of the Sha'ar Ha'Tziyon quoted in the last sentence of the Insights pertaining to the daf.
Many thanks. Yitzchak.
The difference between the construction of graves in the times of the Mishnah and Gemara and in modern times is that in those times, a Kever was not a mere ditch dug into the ground as it is today. Rather, it was chiseled into the side of a cave. The cave was usually beneath the ground, although often it was in the side of a hill, mound, or mountain. There was generally an open area in the center of the cave, and then in the walls of the cave surrounding the open area, smaller coves were chiseled, and into each of those smaller openings a body would be placed. It entailed much more work than digging a small ditch into the ground, since it usually involved digging into solid rock, and/or fortifying the structure so that it not cave-in.
Yisrael Shaw