Tags Mourning

Tag: mourning

Thoughts on a Death

In this personal reflection, Phil Lieberman addresses the unique pain that accompanies the loss of an abusive parent and considers the uneasy coherence of this pain with Jewish traditions of mourning.

קינה לשלום המדינה

In an original Hebrew poem, Shoshanah Haberman addresses the crisis in Israel and Gaza, mourns the dead, and prays for the future.

When Kaddish Becomes Currency: Mapping Out the Mechanics of Merit

Moshe Kurtz explores several halakhic questions concerning the recitation of kaddish for the deceased, all of which point to a larger discussion about how one can confer merit on someone else.

Mi-Simhah Le-Yagon, Mi-Yom Tov Le-Eivel: The Changing Meaning of Sefirat Ha-Omer

Leead Staller explores the connection between Sefira practices and Hol Ha-moed.

“For These Things I Weep”: Psychological Readings of Lamentations

In time for Tisha Be-Av, Marc Eichenbaum offers a meaningful new reading of Eikha using modern psychological concepts like grief, trauma, and narrative construction.

Subjective Experience in Halakhah: Music During Sefirah as a Case Study

Judah Kerbel explores how differing approaches to listening to music during Sefirat ha-Omer balance the appropriate role for subjectivity in halakhic decision-making.

A Kinnah in Kislev: The Enduring Elegy of Dolce of Worms

In honor of the yahrtzeit of Dolce, the wife of Rabbi Eleazar of Worms, Chaya Sima Koenigsberg explores Rabbi Eleazar's moving elegy for his wife and reflects upon Dolce's character as a model for Koenigsberg's own life and the lives of Jewish women today.

The Forgotten Mourners

What is the halakhic status of those mourning the loss of their parents-in-law? Aaron Ross, inspired by his personal experience, grapples with the lack of formal aveilut rituals for non-biological relatives.

Abraham’s “Diminished” Weeping: An Orthographic Note Inspired by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks...

There’s a miniature kaf at the beginning of the parashah. As Gabriel Slamovits explains, what the diminished letter says about how Abraham mourned for Sarah fits well with a prominent teaching of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, zt”l.

The Nightly Cry, the Song of Torah

The call to learn Torah at night surprisingly comes from a verse in Lamentations. Yaakov Weinstein discusses what we can learn from this, and what it means for the practice of staying up on Shavuot.