Final Kindness: Honoring K’rovei Yisr’ael

An important question arose during a series of talks on Jewish death practices about the beauty and power of Jewish burial and mourning practices. After the formal presentation, a Jewish woman explained that her husband was not Jewish, but they were both very active in the local Jewish community and had raised their children as Jews. Her husband was then critically ill, and she was wondering how she could honor him in the beautiful ways we had just described for Jews who die. Because the “>Taharah, while others said Subsequently, I developed a new ceremony, similar to “>Final Kindness. It incorporates the honor and respect of the Jewish practices with a ritual that recognizes that this person is not Jewish. There is no Hebrew, and the liturgical elements are English readings. It is specifically not a Rick Light has been teaching spiritual development for more than 30 years, and started the Chevrah Kadisha in Los Alamos, NM, in 1996.   In 1998 he published the first edition of Guidelines for Performing Taharah as a manual to guide the local chevrah doing its holy work (the 4th edition is now available under the title, “>Final Kindness: Honoring K’rovei Yisrael, a manual for preparing non-Jews for burial who are part of the Jewish community.  Rick is a Vice President of the North American educational organization, “>Gamliel Institute.  He continues to teach and raise awareness about Chevrah Kadisha, Taharah, and Jewish death and burial practices at the local, state, and national levels.