Shiva
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Life I Don’t Believe In Prayer — Yet I Say ‘Yizkor’ Every Year
Like many families, I go into the Jewish holiday season with some sense of sorrow and regret. There is nothing sad about these holidays themselves — even Yom Kippur, a day of fasting and forgiveness is pervaded with a sense of hopefulness and expectation that God will forgive us and inscribe us in the “book…
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The Schmooze Jewish Death Maven Hosts ‘FUN-eral’ Parties, Celebrating Death
Most people stay far away from talking about mortality. Others, like the 88-years-young Shatzi Weisberger, the proud host of what she calls “FUN-eral parties,” are preparing for the end of their lives with gusto. Weisberger is just one of many members of a movement for enthusiastically accepting death. The Death Acceptance Movement, surprisingly, does not…
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Community What the Death of My Mother Taught Me About Charedi Jews and Arab Israelis
The plane was rapidly approaching Tel Aviv airport. Leafing through the newspapers distributed earlier by the flight attendant, I couldn’t escape the headlines. They were filled with reports about the latest violence erupting between the charedim and “secular” Jews, the tensions with the Arab-Israeli population, the dissatisfied immigrants from the former USSR and Ethiopia, the…
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Culture How To Say Kaddish For Your Father in 7 Different Cities
Just over a month ago, my dearly beloved father, Dr. Stephen S. Kutner z”l, passed away, right before my family and I had planned to take a complicated three-week East Coast road trip. After sitting shiva we decided to go through with the trip. And as a Jew mourning an immediate family member, that meant…
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Community Creating a Minyan of Comfort
Attending a shiva call (comforting a Jewish mourner) is one of the most meaningful acts of condolence. In Judaism, we are taught that when a member of our community feels the pain of loss, we are obligated to be there to provide comfort and solace. Each shiva is different, depending on the traditions and beliefs…
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Recipes Mourning? Have Some Kugel.
Photograph by Katarzyna Bialasiewicz/Thinkstock As Jews around the world gathered to celebrate Hanukkah last month, traditional foods such as latkes, sufganiyot, sfinge and other deep-fried delicacies lined our dinner tables. Today, modern Jewish food is celebrated as more than just the krepelach and pickled herring from Eastern European kitchens. It is recognized as a rich…
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Life When Yom Kippur Prayers Don’t Help Grieving
Rosh Hashanah prayers, as depicted in the 18th century // Copyright Wikimedia Commons My father was buried on the eve of Rosh Hashanah 2002 and the holiday began just a few surreal hours after I stood at his open grave. The shiva — the seven-day period of formal mourning — was cancelled to usher in…
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Opinion Jewish Emphasis on Life Makes Death Rituals a Gift to World
It’s sometimes said that religion originated out of the fear of death. We all face the abyss, and we all grieve when our loved ones pass away. From this utter meaninglessness, the theory goes, myths of meaning arise. A review of Biblical literature, however, calls this theory into question. Unlike many indigenous and shamanic traditions,…
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