It’s the bodies that haunt me. Each tells a story, shares a history. Scars from cuts or C-section births, bruises from blood draws or recent falls, surgical incision lines. The first Meitah (deceased woman) I saw with her mouth agape and her body wrinkled, was in her 90s. As a new member of the Chevrah Kadisha (CK), I was given the job of holding the meitah’s head while others performed the rituals of Taharah (ritual purification). I felt awkward …
Category: Jewish
My Uncle Harry died in March of 2002. I had gone to Kansas City to visit my parents and, hopefully, to help them move from an apartment into an assisted-living facility. Between the time I had made my travel plans and the time I arrived, my uncle had been hospitalized for what the emergency room doctor thought was a heart attack. In doing their morning check-in, the nurses at the assisted-living facility to which my uncle had moved in October …
Now that we have passed the annual Selichot service, and we are about to enter into the days of awe, it is again time to pause and take stock, review where Expired and Inspired has been, where it is, and where it is going. It is appropriate – Elul is a time of introspection, retrospection, and prospection. Expired and Inspired began as a concept in early 2014 as a way to share some of the experiences, thoughts, emotions, and …
Not uncommonly, in my work over the years in nursing homes, hospitals, and assisted living centers, I encounter someone who will say to me, “Rabbi. Why hasn’t God taken me?” It is a question, you can imagine, that is unanswerable. All I can do is take a hand, be silent, and look into the eyes of the suffering one, with compassion, trying to understand the gamut of their feelings: that there is no longer joy in remaining alive, either due …
[Ed. Note: This article by Makena Mezistrano is originally appeared in Jewish in Seattle Magazine on April 15, 2019. The link to the original article is https://mag.jewishinseattle.org/articles/2019/4/15/when-a-homeless-jewish-man-died-alone-a-community-stepped-up-to-help. Our thanks to Jewish In Seattle Magazine for granting us permission. — JB] When a Homeless Jewish Man Died Alone, a Community Stepped Up to Help High school students helped perform the ultimate mitzvah. By Makena Mezistrano 4/15/2019 at 2:25pm Published in the April 2019 issue of Jewish in Seattle Magazine IMAGE: KIERSTEN ESSENPREIS Rabbi Berry Farkash sighs on the other side …
[Ed. Note: This story by Marjorie Ingall originally appeared in Tablet magazine July 17th 2019,, at tabletmag.com, and is reprinted with permission. The original can be linked at https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/287796/lessons-burial-society. Our thanks to Tablet for granting us use. Holly Blue Hawkins, the person interviewed, is a Gamliel Institute student and teacher. She has submitted other blogs to Expired And Inspired. — JB] Lessons for Living From the Burial Society What a ‘death midwife’ has learned from the dead and dying By Marjorie Ingall …
An article appeared in the British press regarding the Banwell cemetery in Somerset which after a long existence is running out of space. The possible solution: Coffins to be stacked four deep just inches from the churchyard surface ; bodies would be dug up and reburied in deeper ground and the names of the newly buried person would be added to the headstone.( 1) The Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church and the Muslim Council of Britain have all …
In June, for the 17th time, Kavod v’Nichum held its’ annual conference, this time in Fort Collins, CO. This is a gathering of people from all over North Amrrica, and sometimes even more far flung. These are all people who have an interest in, or who are involved with, Jewish end-of-life practices and rituals, including providing comfort to the ill and their families, responding when there has been a death, helping families to navigate the maze around death, assisting with …
[Ed. Note: This is another in a series of blog posts by Isaac Pollak for Expired And Inspired. Each deals with matters related to the Chevrah Kadisha, Jewish burial practices, and similar topics.] I – Death in the Biblical World Early in the book of Genesis , Abraham (2000 BC, categorized as the early Bronze Age which lasted approximately 2500 BC to 800 BC), first of the biblical patriarchs buys a cave as a burial plot for his wife , …
It’s 7:45 am and I am sitting in my car outside the funeral home. I’m flipping through Rick Light’s Powerpoint presentation “Taharah Training”. I’m more than a little nervous. What if I do something that is considered dishonoring to the Meitah? What if I get faint at the sight of a deceased person? As a hospice volunteer, I have been in the presence of several of my patients after death. But each one has been peacefully resting in bed with …