"They tended the corpse gently and reverently, yet did not pretend it was other than a corpse..." Jewish Literacy
"They tended the corpse gently and reverently, yet did not pretend it was other than a corpse..." Jewish Literacy
“What we do with the body at the end of life is very much like what we do with a child when it is born... We wash it carefully, we wrap it in clean swaddling, and we watch it around the clock.” "Reviving a Ritual of Tending to the Dead," New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/nyregion/13burial.html)
Members of a chevra kadisha (literally "holy society" or burial society) prepare bodies for Jewish burials by praying for, washing, purifying (performing tahara), dressing the body in white linen shroud, and placing it in a wooden casket. Women tend to the bodies of women, men to men. It is also traditional that the body never be left alone; a shomer or "watcher" stays with the body until the time of burial. Those who do this work for the dead perform the ultimate act of kindness-chessed shel emet)-because the dead can never reciprocate. Muslim s observe similar rituals, including tahara.
Learn more at Valley Chevra Kadisha: https://www.valleychevrakadisha.org/about
Because Jewish law requires that a body must be intact at the time of burial, chevra kadisha members do their work in a variety of situations including natural disasters and mass casualty events.
Here's a very good article about burial society volunteers at the Surfside condo collapse:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/jewish-burial-tradition-brings-comfort-for-families-of-surfside-condo-collapse-victims/2021/07/16/3e507172-deb2-11eb-b507-697762d090dd_story.html
Those who do this work are changed by it. For more information, please visit artist Karen Benioff Friedman's website for her description of her experience in a Chevra Kadisha, the meaning of tahara, and to see her paintings of a burial society at work: https://www.karenbeniofffriedman.com/about-chevra-kadisha
“What we do with the body at the end of life is very much like what we do with a child when it is born... We wash it carefully, we wrap it in clean swaddling, and we watch it around the clock.” "Reviving a Ritual of Tending to the Dead," New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/nyregion/13burial.html)
Members of a chevra kadisha (literally "holy society" or burial society) prepare bodies for Jewish burials by praying for, washing, purifying (performing tahara), dressing the body in white linen shroud, and placing it in a wooden casket. Women tend to the bodies of women, men to men. It is also traditional that the body never be left alone; a shomer or "watcher" stays with the body until the time of burial. Those who do this work for the dead perform the ultimate act of kindness-chessed shel emet)-because the dead can never reciprocate. Muslim s observe similar rituals, including tahara.
Learn more at Valley Chevra Kadisha: https://www.valleychevrakadisha.org/about
Because Jewish law requires that a body must be intact at the time of burial, chevra kadisha members do their work in a variety of situations including natural disasters and mass casualty events.
Here's a very good article about burial society volunteers at the Surfside condo collapse:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/jewish-burial-tradition-brings-comfort-for-families-of-surfside-condo-collapse-victims/2021/07/16/3e507172-deb2-11eb-b507-697762d090dd_story.html
Those who do this work are changed by it. For more information, please visit artist Karen Benioff Friedman's website for her description of her experience in a Chevra Kadisha, the meaning of tahara, and to see her paintings of a burial society at work: https://www.karenbeniofffriedman.com/about-chevra-kadisha
