{"id":50789,"date":"2019-09-13T16:24:50","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T22:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=50789"},"modified":"2019-09-13T16:25:05","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T22:25:05","slug":"tears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/tears\/","title":{"rendered":"Tears"},"content":{"rendered":"

By RABBI JOSEPH H. PROUSER<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most dramatic and emotionally evocative aspect of Jewish mourning and funerary traditions is the practice of \u201cKeriyah<\/em>.\u201d We tear our clothing (some use a black ribbon attached to the clothing) as a sign of our grief.<\/p>\n

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Keriyah<\/em> is also a sign worn by mourners that they require the support, and comfort of friends and an understanding community. Keriyah<\/em> is a call for kindness.<\/p>\n

The Bible records that, at times of loss and bereavement, Jacob, King David, and Job all tore their clothing. Mordecai tore his clothing in response to Haman\u2019s genocidal designs.<\/p>\n

Petrarch, the fourteenth century Italian Renaissance scholar, humanist, and poet, wrote: \u201cTears are heard within the harp I touch.\u201d In Jewish tradition\u2019s wise and therapeutic approach to bereavement, both tears and tears offer poetic testimony to our pain.<\/p>\n

(Rabbi Joseph H. Prouser is the rabbi of Temple Emanuel of North Jersey and the National Chaplain of the National Jewish Committee on Scouting.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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