Shiva

Consoling a mourner is one of those challenging situations that we would all rather avoid. But it's an act of kindness and it's not really so difficult: What's really needed most is the fact that you are there.

Jewish tradition exhorts us to properly mourn the passing of a loved one, and sets the practices and rituals that facilitate and give expression to our feelings of loss and grief. At the same time, however, it establishes a sequence of time frames through...

The laws of mourning are incumbent upon seven first-degree relatives of the deceased.

The Mourning Pattern, Five Stages of Mourning, The Mourner and the Mourned, The thirty day Period, Candles in the House of Mourning, Mourning observances in the Home

Shiva, the seven-day period of mourning, is observed upon the passing of the seven close relatives listed in Leviticus: father, mother, wife (or husband), son, daughter, brother, and sister. 21:1-3. These relationships are enumerated within the context of...

The mourners typically gather in a single home to observe shiva together.

After death, the soul ascends to heaven in stages and sitting shiva is a final act of compassion we can offer our loved ones before the soul takes its final departure. In this lesson, we will discuss the laws of shiva, the symbolism of the Torah’s mournin...

For a week after a funeral, the close relatives of the deceased sit and mourn the loss of their relative. “Shiva” is Hebrew for “seven,” since this stage of mourning lasts for seven days.

Did you know that mourning for seven days is an ancient custom that predates the giving of the Torah? Learn all about it here.

I am in the seven-day mourning period for my sister. I am curious about some of the mourning customs.