Death & Mourning

Stone wall with Hebrew letters engraved on a rectangular plaque.

While Judaism places great emphasis on our lives in this world, death is an inevitable end for all of us. Often Jews who have been distant from traditional Jewish practice for their whole lives seek the comfort of traditional Judaism in the face of death. For mourners, whose lives are often turned upside down by death, the traditional practices of mourning can provide structure and comfort. Here you will find resources that address each aspect of the process of navigating death and mourning—from the moment of death, to the burial of the body, the tearing of clothes, the weeklong practice of shiva, and the recitation of kaddish.

 

Latest Rituals

A prayer to be said before lighting the shiva candle

A single lit candle against a dark background.
A prayer to be said upon returning from the cemetery and lighting a memorial candle
A lit candle in a frosted glass holder casts a warm glow in a dark setting.
A poem about the metaphorical seeds a grandfather sowed for his descendants
zayde in chair smiling
“Move to the front—of the line—a voice says…”
open gate
A poem describing the ritual of removing the tzitzit from a dead person’s tallit and giving them to his or her beloveds prior to burial
A person wearing a tallit reads from an open book while seated on a wooden bench.
“I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground./ So it is, and so it will be…”
man bringing flowers to grave in cemetery
“In the rising of the sun and in its going down, we remember them.”
tiny white flowers at sunrise
A poem describing the palpable absence of a dead mother
cluttered wood table
A poem about the journey of grief
circular stone staircase

Appropriate for burial, cremation, or marking periods of mourning

tea candles

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