Shiva, the traditional Jewish mourning period for close relatives, is normally seven days long. It makes sense that shiva should be seven days. Seven (shiva in Hebrew) is a number with special significance in Judaism. The seven-branched menorah, a symbol of Judaism since ancient times. The seven times a bride circles the groom at the…
Twitter users who applied seemingly Christian terminology and concepts to the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg came under fire over the weekend, as Jewish internet users and their allies struggled to process the death of the Jewish Supreme Court justice. Some questioned the use of the term “RIP,” which is used in many Christian services…
It’s Tisha B’av – the darkest day in the Jewish calendar. We remember the destruction. We mourn the loss of the First and Second Temples. We recall Crusades and pogroms that happened on this same day in years gone by. And each year, after the fasting and the mourning of Tisha B’av, comes Shabbat. This…
October 28, 1918, the Forverts published what is likely their first rabbinic pronouncement on the influenza epidemic. Written by New York’s Chief of the Rabbinic Courts, Rabbi Gavriel Zev Margolis, it could be found above the fold, technically speaking, but on the very last page of the secular Yiddish Forverts. The informal, chatty headline made…
25 years ago this week, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the leader of the Chabad Hassidic movement who some Jews believe to be the messiah, died. Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, a biographer of Schneerson, who was known to his followers as The Rebbe, says, “He really established what is, as far as I know, the first attempt…
From dust we came, and to dust we shall return. And in between, a little popcorn maybe? Jewish death traditions are their own kind of immersive theater — a powerful group performance that calls for a set, props, costumes, special effects, and a grueling schedule. That high drama is no doubt why filmmakers and TV…
Exploring what the Shiva customs in Judaism are
It’s a crisp autumn day in Madison, Wisconsin, and I’m running late for a meeting with a dead person. I volunteer with my congregation’s Chevra Kadisha, a group that helps prepare Jewish bodies for burial and ensures that every congregant has company from the moment they’ve passed away until the last clump of dirt covers…
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