I want to be cremated,but my sister is very upset with my decision as she thinks if one is cremated one loses one's soul whereas if one is buried she says we'd be united again in heaven. She is Orthodox and I am a Reform Jew. Does she have any validity according to Jewish law?

The issue of cremation is more of a this worldly issue than a next worldly issue. Jewish Law clearly prohibits cremation as a way of disposing of a human body for a number of very sensitive reasons. First, cremation is considered an act of bizui hamet, degrading the dead person. In the same way that a Jewish person would be abhorred by the active and volitional burning of aTorah scroll which is only ink and parchment containing the Divine word, so too is he abhorred by the burning of human flesh and blood, the image that G-d assigned to contain His divine spark, our Neshama (soul). Second, from a cultural and historic perspective, after the crematoriums of Auschwitz with which the Nazis demonstrated their disdain for the very bodies of the Jews they murdered, cremation becomes for some of us an anathema seemingly validating the Nazi view of the Jewish body. Furthermore, when we treat a lifeless body with care and respect we are reminded to treat a living person with at least as much care and respect.

On of the greatest Mitzvot that a person can perform is preparing a body for burial. This is done by a group called the Chevrah Kadishah, the Holy Community, that every Jewish community organizes. I am unaware of a legal tradition that says one loses one's soul if one is cremated (outside of some mystical traditions that perceive cremation as agony for the soul) . The violation of Jewish Law falls on the relatives contracting the cremation rather than the deceased. However, if they are following the instructions of the deceased and they are unfamiliar and uninvolved with Jewish Law, it would seem only logical that the deceased is implicated in the act of cremation and the consequences in heaven is above my pay grade to discern.