Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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When Rabbi Maurice Lamm wrote his classic work, “The Jewish Way in Death and Dying,” no one could have imagined this pandemic.
The Jewish community now faces a world of limited-attendance funerals, virtual shivas and significantly altered or suspended tahara (the ritual cleansing of the deceased). There is pressure to reconsider both the traditional taboo on cremation and the extreme difficulties in carrying out the wishes of those who desired to be buried in Israel.
These days, family members who want to take part in burying the deceased must bring their own shovel to the cemetery.
“In my 50-plus years of working in this industry, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Edward Yarmus, a longtime funeral director of Plaza Jewish Community Chapel on the Upper West Side, told The Jewish Week.
jewishweek.timesofisrael.com
That has to be difficult to contend with.
The Jewish community now faces a world of limited-attendance funerals, virtual shivas and significantly altered or suspended tahara (the ritual cleansing of the deceased). There is pressure to reconsider both the traditional taboo on cremation and the extreme difficulties in carrying out the wishes of those who desired to be buried in Israel.
These days, family members who want to take part in burying the deceased must bring their own shovel to the cemetery.
“In my 50-plus years of working in this industry, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Edward Yarmus, a longtime funeral director of Plaza Jewish Community Chapel on the Upper West Side, told The Jewish Week.
New York Jewish Week - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
jewishweek.timesofisrael.com
That has to be difficult to contend with.
