The loss of a child never disappears, yet it is also not always there
Eliana died 20 years ago, at the age of 2; naturally, I wonder who she would be today, and how ...
An Encounter with Yizkor
I can clearly remember the moment when I finally joined the club that I had dreaded joining for years; when ...
Our Tapestry – Pesach Tidbits 5779
Here are some meaningful thoughts from our dear friends at Our Tapestry in honor of the upcoming holiday of Pesach/Passover ...
Whats Your Grief: Helping Your Friends Help You
{This Post is reposted from the blog "Whats Your Grief" under the heading "Helping Your Friends Help You", You can ...
Chanukah: Eight Ways To Incorporate The Memory of a Loved One Into The Holiday
Holiday times can often be the roughest terrain to navigate after a loss. Every person copes differently with the painful ...
Conversation in the Womb
One of the most venerable rabbis of the past hundred years was Rabbi Yechiel Michel Tucazinsky. He lived the majority ...
15 Lessons from Shiva
It was 4 a.m. when the call came, but we slept through it. Then it came again at 5:45 a.m ...
Rabbi Lamm: Shiva and Mourning
Judaism, with its long history of dealing with the soul of man, its intimate knowledge of man's achievements and foibles, ...
The Stages of Jewish Mourning: A Practical Guide
Judaism provides a beautiful, structured approach to mourning that involves three stages. When followed carefully, these stages guide mourners through ...
Our Shiva Experience
“Better to go to a house of mourning than a house of joy.” Ecclesiastes It is a big mitzvah to ...
A Practical Guide to Paying A Shiva Call
When one pays a shiva call, the focus is on comforting the mourners in their time of greatest grief. Traditionally, ...
ABCs of Death & Mourning
Judaism provides a beautiful, structured approach to mourning that involves three stages. When followed carefully, these stages guide mourners through ...
“How are You, Racheli?”: A Poignant Interview with Racheli Frankel
At the beginning of the year, a strange dog suddenly appeared at the Frankel home. Racheli remembers that the veterinarian ...
Birthday for the Bereaved
You may have heard of my son Koby. In May (2001), he and a friend were brutally murdered a half-mile ...
Strength and Hope after Miscarriage and Stillbirth: One Woman’s Journey
By: Tracy Prisman (who welcomes your responses at prisman7@gmail.com) {This article is sourced from the blog Jewish Mom: Inspiration from ...
Pregnancy and Loss
Dear Rebbetzin, My precious daughter carried a perfect little 'angel' for exactly nine months. Two days after due date, she ...
Doni’s Life and Loss
I always thought my pack of six children was a lot, until I saw the older five clinging to each ...
Touching the World of Angels
What can anyone say when a baby dies in her crib without warning just 76 days after she was born? ...
The Soul – Aryeh Kaplan
One of the foundations of our faith is the belief in the immortality of the soul, and in life after ...
What is ‘Found Family’?
This morning we held a workshop on coping with loss. I know, it’s a very broad topic, but we planned ...
This Is What Social Isolation Looks Like
It’s winter. It’s cold. It’s dark. I’ve been socially isolating. There, I said it. I’m guessing I might not be ...
Remembering Abi: How Lucy Hone lives with the loss of her daughter
This isn't the first piece I've written. I used to contribute on a variety of topics that, for one reason ...
Understanding Grief
Although many of us are able to speak frankly about death, we still have a lot to learn about dealing ...
Nichum Aveilim: Comforting the Mourners
As some of the readers may know, our family lost our beloved son, Eric Eliezer Levenson (z”l), a year and ...
Passing over a son’s passing
Fifteen months since my son’s death, I have now navigated a complete calendar cycle of holidays. My journey since the ...
How to Love Someone Who is Grieving Their Child
When someone you love has experienced the loss of a child, it’s hard on everyone. They are engulfed in a ...
6 Things to Never Say to a Bereaved Parent
If you’re a bereaved parent, you can probably count on at least five hands the number of phrases you wish ...
How to Make a Tragic Shiva Call
Every shiva is hard, but some are harder than others. Recently, I went to the second kind of shiva: the shiva for our friend who ...
Coping With Loss on the High Holidays
These holy days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur can often be difficult days, especially for those who have suffered ...
Praying After the Death of My Son. An open letter to Sheryl Sandberg.
Dear Sheryl, Your new book Option B has opened the conversation for thousands about the way to respond to tragedy and heartache after ...
The Shofar: A Mother’s Cry
How many shofar blasts must be heard on Rosh Hashana? The search for the answer to this question led the ...
Broken Lives and Broken Tablets
One of the most dramatic scenes in the Torah is when Moses descends Mount Sinai and sees the Jewish people ...
Throwing the Keys Up to Heaven: A Thought for Tisha B’Av
When offering words of comfort to a mourner we reference the destruction of the Temple. The traditional invocation expresses our ...
Visiting the Graves of Loved Ones Before Yom Kippur
There is a meaningful custom of visiting the graves of our loved ones during the period surrounding Rosh Hashana and ...
A Permanent Tear: On The Loss Of A Child
What does the Torah, our most sacred text, teach us about the traumatic and heart wrenching death: the loss of ...