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Funeral & Burial

Weathered tombstone with small stones on top, displaying moss growth and a blurred green background.

Jewish practices of funeral and burial are constructed around a few key ideas: Death is to be confronted, not denied. The dead body is to be accorded the utmost respect. Mourners are to be comforted. We are equal in the face of death. The burial and decay of a body is a natural process which should not be impeded or interrupted.

Latest Rituals

Selecting verses from Psalms on the basis of the Hebrew name of the deceased

blank notebook with flowers and pen

This traditional prayer for the dead

Hebrew letters on a textured stone plaque mounted on a brick wall.

From the Jewish-Hungarian poet most widely known for “Eli, Eli”

Clouds, Moon and Stars
A touching view of this uniquely Jewish ritual which accords profound respect to the individual between death and burial
white sheet and dried purple flowers

Traditional memorial prayer recited at funerals in which God is asked to gather up the soul of the departed for eternal life

mourners at cemetery

This beautiful psalm is often read at funerals or memorial services

book of psalms

A tradition honoring a Torah reader at a funeral

torah on lectern
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
Person sitting on a bench, wearing a prayer shawl, holding an open book with Hebrew text.
“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

The Reconstructionist Network

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Training the next generation of groundbreaking rabbis

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Curating original, Jewish rituals, and convening Jewish creatives

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