This afternoon I rushed home from work via tremp, bus, tremp, home then walked and two more tremps until I finally got to the gathering next to the Mishkan Shiloh Synagogue.
Just as I approached my friend whose mother had passed away, the neighbor who conducts the funerals, handed me the knife and asked me to do "kri'ah," make that first cut in the mourner's clothing. That article of clothes must be worn for the entire shiva, seven day mourning period, except for Shabbat.
The mourner ignores all norms of "proper attire." No hair combing, bathing or clean clothes. None of those things are important; they're all material. Friends and relatives bring the mourner food and drink.
We accompanied the body to the cemetery. She was placed in her grave. Various people shoveled the dirt onto her, and she was buried.
Her daughter, grandsons and great-grandchildren all live here in Shiloh.
HaMakom Y'Nachem
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