1,271. The Burial Shroud

196:22 If a person loses a relative and is unaware, if there is no one else to make funeral arrangements, he should be told. If others are dealing with it, he should not be informed until after he has davened. If one's wife lost a relative and she is unaware, the husband should act stringently and not have marital relations with her. Compare this with the law in 206:9; the status of an onen is more stringent.

197:1 The practice is to put the deceased in nice white linen clothes as a sign of our belief in the ultimate resurrection of the dead, as Rav Chiya bar Yoseif said (Talmud Kesubos 111b), "the righteous are destined to stand in their clothes." However, the burial clothes may not be fancier than necessary, as this is prohibited. Funeral shrouds may likewise have neither hems nor knots, neither in the threads used to sew them nor in dressing the deceased. A person is buried in a tallis that has tzitzis (fringes), one of which has been rendered unfit. It's preferable, when laying the deceased in his grave, to tuck one fringe into the corner of the tallis. If the deceased had a nice tallis that he used when he was alive, it's not considered appropriate to use a different tallis that isn't as nice. The idea is that one would rather be buried in the tallis he wore while he was alive. When dressing the deceased, one should have the intention that just as the body is dressed, so should his soul be spiritually clothed in Paradise.