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Mourning

An Index to Tractate Moed Katan Pertaining to Mourning Practices 

by Isaac Pollak and Dan Fendel
A guide to those aspects of Babylonian Talmud tractate Moed Katan that inform mourning and burial practices. A list of topics, by location within the tractate, and commentary taken or adapted from the work of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz’1 , with the Yachin Boaz Mishnayot and the Kahati commentary as other important sources. Includes excerpts from Moed Katan to illustrate the issues identified and provides transitional text, along with subheadings and occasional footnotes, to make for clearer readability and easier use.
 
A Year and a Day – Kaddish

by Ronnie Caplane
It was recently the 10th anniversary of my mother’s death. And, as I have every year, I lit a 24-hour yahrzeit candle, went to Friday night services and recited Kaddish. For me this service isn’t like any other.
 
The Attitude Toward Sickness, Dying and Death As Expressed in the Liturgical Works of Maavor Yabok and Sefer Hahayiim

by Steven Moss
How did Jewish tradition view sickness and death during different eras and in different places? These two texts had more published editions than any other works in this area of manuals for the sick and dying. These texts are seen as basic and primary handbooks for subsequent writings of other handbooks on these topics.  
 
 
Relevant Teshuvot:
  • Joel Rembaum, "Converts Mourning the Death of Close Relatives" YD 374:5.1998
  • Kassel Abelson and Mayer Rabinowitz, "Ritual of Mourning When a Body is Not Recovered" YD 375:7.2001
  • Richard Plavin and Mayer Rabinowitz, "Saying Kaddish for Twelve Months, A Valid Alternative" YD 376:4.2008
  • Joshua Heller, "Shiva When Burial is Delayed" YD 375:2.2015
  • Daniel Greyber, "Comforting Mourners (Nihum Aveilim) on Festivals" YD 399:1.2018

Miscarriage and Stillbirth

  • Isidoro Aizenberg, "Treatment of the Loss of a Fetus Through Miscarriage" YD 340:30.1987
  • Isidoro Aizenberg, "Mourning for a Newborn" YD 374:8.1987
  • Debra Reed Blank, "Response to Miscarriage" YD 340:30.1991a
  • Amy Eilberg, "Response to Miscarriage: An Alternate View" YD 340:30.1991b
  • Stephanie Dickstein, "What Should Be Jewish Practice Following the Death of an Infant Who Lives Less Than Thirty One Days?" YD 374:8.1992a
  • Avram Israel Reisner, "Kiyyam Li: A Dissenting Concurrence" YD 374:8.1992b
  • Stephanie Dickstein, "What Should Jewish Practice Be Following a Stillbirth?" YD 340:30.1996a
  • Ben Zion Bergman, "What's In a Name?: A Concurrence and Dissent" YD 340:30.1996b
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