Ecclesiastes Rabbah 12:6

¹“Before the silver cord is severed, the golden skull is shattered, the pitcher is smashed at the spring, and the wheel is shattered into the cistern” (Ecclesiastes 12:6); “Before the silver cord is severed” – this is the spinal column; “the golden skull is shattered” – this is the skull. Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Neḥemya said: This is the throat, which expels the gold and expends the silver. “The pitcher is smashed at the spring” – this is a person’s stomach. Three days after [death] a person’s stomach bursts, and it moves [its contents] to the mouth and says to it: ‘Take for yourself what you stole and robbed and placed within me.’ Rabbi Ḥagai derives it from this verse: “I will scatter filth upon your faces, the filth of your festive offerings” (Malachi 2:3). Bar Kappara said: The full intensity of mourning is for three days, while the form of the countenance is still recognizable. We learned: One testifies only about the full face with the nose… 16:3), which continues by specifying that it is possible to positively identify the corpse only within three days of death. “The wheel is shattered into the cistern” – two amora’im : One said: Like those wheels of Tzippori. ). One said: Like the clods in Tiberias, as it is stated: “The clods of the stream are sweet to him” (Job 21:33). ] of the verse is understood as referring to the stones covering a grave [ golel ].