A Simple Shroud

Before his passing, Rabban Gamliel gave instructions that his body be wrapped in the plainest shroud. In his day the arrangements for the dead had become a matter of costly display, and he wished to put a stop to it.

At his funeral the well-known convert Akylas, also called Onkelos, revived an ancient custom and burned valuable materials worth seventy minae in his honor. His own wish was fulfilled all the same. The simple shroud became the rule, and Jews have remembered him for it ever since.