I want to be Jewish (but only when I'm dead)

Jewish Burials are great. There are so many traditions in the Jewish Culture. Some of them are…unnecessary, but some of them are quite phenomenal. Yesterday was the first Jewish burial I’ve ever attended. For those of you who have never been, after the coffin is lowered into the grave everyone present shovels three scopes of dirt (using the back of the shovel) into the grave. It’s done in complete silence and is so touching. The sound of the dirt on the wood is almost haunting. After everyone has had a turn, you fill in the rest of the earth. It’s hard enough watching the coffin being lowered into the grave, but to bury the person yourself…there’s a real sensation of closing. This is how I would want to be buried, except I plan on being cremated.

After the funeral comes 7 days of Shiva (sitting). The family stays in and lets people come to them. They are taken care of for all those days. Food is brought, stories are told, and the only rule is that the family isn’t allowed to entertain. They are just supposed to be there and let others come to them. It’s not that other religions don’t do this for the families, but with the Jews it is laid out; there’s a plan and everyone knows about it.

I was going to write about how communal the Jewish people are when I realized it probably wasn’t fair to all the other peoples of the world. Yes, the Jewish community came out in force to support the family these past few days. And, yes, most of them are faithful people who knew the prayers and traditions by heart. But that’s no different from any other culture/religion. If it had been a Catholic funeral I might be writing this about the Catholics. If it had been an Italian funeral I know I would be writing the same about them. Chinese, Hindu, Greek, they all would have been there. I don’t want to take away from anything that happen this past week; I guess I just want to say in some bitter-sweet way that, though terrible, funerals bring the best out of everyone.

Rebecca gave a beautiful speech.