Behrman House

The Jewish Mourner'S Handbook Behrman House

Judaism embraces all of life and accepts death as a part of life. At the same time, Jewish tradition understands that we are never prepared to lose someone we love. In the face of death we are confronted by powerful emotions and questions to which we have no answers. That is when ritual shows its greatest strength. Judaism present us with a highly structured series of procedures that can help us through our grief and ease us back into the rhythm of life. Jewish tradition recognizes our confused emotions and shows us how to act on them in clearly demarcated stages of mourning.

There is comfort and security in the knowledge that centuries of tradition lie behind each of these practices, as we do what our parents did before us and their parents before them.