Valuable lessons I learned from rabbis, friends, and Stephen Colbert
Check out our stories about everything from burial to shiva, Kaddish to yahrzeit—from the timeline of Jewish rituals to the personal experiences of those who’ve been through it
Talking to my kids about death, with a little help from a lamb
Jewish laws and traditions have much to say about what happens after we die. But there is still a lot for us to consider.
What a ‘death midwife’ has learned from the dead and dying
A son must face the daunting task of writing the epitaph for his father’s headstone
How an unlikely business meeting on 9/11 grew into a brotherhood, forged by Torah and the practice of Judaism
A slew of new picture books will help parents explain the hardest subject of all
Bob Morris, author of the new memoir Bobby Wonderful: An Imperfect Son Buries His Parents, has created an online museum for your parents’ things—and he wants your submissions.
Amending the Jewish take on organ and whole body donation
During my first shift sitting shmira with a body awaiting burial, I felt sad, guilty, anxious—and grateful
Returning our deceased to the soil honors the injunction for a proper burial—and keeps us mindful of the life cycle of which we’re a part
The Talmud imagines the world as organized for the benefit of Torah sages, even in matters of sex and death
When celebrities die, tributes flood social media—and I can’t help but ‘dislike’
Two Jewish women launched Modern Loss to help twenty- and thirtysomethings start a new conversation about struggling with grief
Kids’ fascination with the undead goes far beyond one holiday, but it’s a perfect time to talk about Jewish traditions around death
After my brother died, I was frozen with grief—until author Harold Kushner helped me rediscover community
When a mother succumbs to cancer in old age, and a father faces his own mortality, a son is reminded of the blessings of a good shiva