The matzevah is the Jewish gravestone, and its setting and its inscription are governed by custom that ties the memory of the individual to the community and its language.
Setting and unveiling
The stone is set at the grave and, in a widespread custom, formally unveiled at a ceremony held some months and up to a year after the burial, marking the close of the first period of mourning, so the raising of the stone is itself an observance. The inscription gives the Hebrew name of the person and that of the father, the dates according to the Jewish calendar, and often a short phrase of praise or a verse, so that the memorial is written in the sacred language and set in the sacred reckoning of time, joining the individual to the people.
Stones on the stone
Visitors to a Jewish grave commonly place a small stone on the matzevah rather than flowers, a custom of uncertain origin understood as a sign that the grave has been visited and the dead remembered, and this simple act has become one of the most recognisable features of the Jewish cemetery. The care of the stone and the grave falls within the responsibilities that surround the Jewish dead, and the reluctance to disturb graves is strong in the tradition. The matzevah is thus more than a marker: it fixes the name and the dates in the sacred forms, and it becomes the place at which the ongoing duty of remembrance is discharged.