Loss, Mourning & Consolation

Our tradition encompasses all of life, day and night, light and dark. Even in the most difficult of situations--the imminent and then actual loss of a loved one--our Torah is there to strengthen us, to guide us, and to help us grow and see beyond our ...

Question: G-d chose to take away my dear son from me. Can I have my son back as a newly born son with G-d's blessings? Response: The MidrashMishle 31 tells the story of Bruriah, the wife of Rabbi Meir. The couple was blessed with two boys. Lively and ...

Question: Why would G‑d take a father by a massive heart attack as he's dancing at his daughter's wedding? None of the upwards of 50 Rabbis at the wedding could save my brother-in-law, nor could the doctors. I don't understand how this can happen. I ...

Question: Almost a year ago, I lost my child. I watch the world moving along while I am left behind in the memory of her and of what could have been. Now the first yartzeit is coming up. What is that supposed to mean to me? Where do I take things from ...

When you’re feeling sad, do you go to your father or to your mother? Is it transcendence that you seek, or the solacing embrace that assures us that nothing is meaningless, that everything we are and feel can be borne, inhabited and redeemed?

From a letter by the Rebbe When a close relative passes away, according to G-d’s will, those that remain here cannot see him anymore with their eyes or hear him with their ears. However, the soul in the World of Truth does see and hear, and when it sees ...

is more bearable--and its recovery more certain

"Remembrance" provides context to deal with the most painful of losses

Or perhaps it's the other way around: we care, simply and only, because You, G-d, care

If I can buffer my grief or save it for only those to whom I am "really close", I do. If I can deflect it or distract it by anger or politics, I do. But recently I wrote to a colleague mourning the murder of a friend, only to realize that I was speaking ...