H eadlines
Rituals Continued from Page 1
their loved one deserves,” said
Seth Goldstein, a vice presi-
dent at Goldsteins’ Rosenberg’s
Raphael-Sacks. The host of Jewish rituals
performed from when a person
is dying to when they’re buried
is meant to retain that person’s
dignity. “It makes me feel good that
we are bringing comfort to the
families and the loved ones that
they left behind,” said David
Kushner, a member of the
burial society Chevra Kadisha
B’nei Moshe. “It’s a very good
feeling to know that we’re
playing whatever small role
we’re playing in the continuity
of sacred Jewish rituals that go
back thousands of years.”
Still, the pandemic has
added challenges to completing
this role.

The pandemic delayed
funeral homes receiving neces-
sary burial permits for timely
funerals. Some families had to
delay funerals or give up on
traditions they wanted to take
part in, such as viewing their
loved one’s body or the ritual
cleansing of tehara.

“In this day and age, you
kind of have to be a little bit
more flexible,” Goldstein said.

10 NOVEMBER 4, 2021
Chevra kadisha members
who complete tehara donned
full personal protective equip-
ment — disposable gowns, face
shields, masks, booties, gloves
and hoods — during the height
of COVID, Kushner said.

At the beginning of COVID,
when it was unclear how COVID
was transmitted, Goldsteins’
Rosenberg’s Raphael-Sacks
had trouble arranging tehara
for deceased who had died of
COVID complications.

The Reconstructionist
Chevra Kadisha is just now
resuming teharas, having
suspended operation during
most of COVID, feeling unable
to make appropriate safety
accommodations. “We were getting in a small
room all together,” said Rabbi
Linda Holtzman, member and
founder of the chevra kadisha.

“There’s no windows; there’s
no anything. We’re there for
about an hour, and it just felt
uncomfortable.” Yet burials over COVID
continued, tehara or no, and
Joseph Levine & Sons has long
been prepared for adapting
funeral services, having used
digital streaming services for the
past 15 years, following a trend
of many other funeral homes.

“When kids, grandkids were
in college, or when people were
Adam Levine (left), Brian Levine and Jon Levine of Joseph Levine &
Sons Memorial Chapel
Courtesy of Adam Levine
overseas — especially in Israel
— they could log on to [Zoom].

It was really the way that our
world was moving,” Levine
said, “and we’ve had some
big services where we’ve had
hundreds of people logging on.”
Though sometimes funerals
felt palpably different — at
times, only Levine and a rabbi
would be present — Zoom has
some added benefits. When
loved ones are speaking at a
funeral over Zoom, Levine has
found it easier to focus on the
speakers. But the presence of
technology has not made all
rituals easier.

For Rabbi Tsurah August,
JEWISH EXPONENT
the staff chaplain at Jewish
Family and Children’s Service
of Greater Philadelphia,
adapting the intimate practice
of counseling a hospice patient
before their death to a virtual
space was hard.

“I was a mess,” August said.

“The most important thing is
just showing up, being present:
holding someone’s hand,
looking in their eyes, breathing
with them ... And it was gone.”
August, who works primarily
with patients at Abington
Hospice in
Warminster and Nazareth Hospice in
Philadelphia, adapted anyway,
conducting the vidui, confes-
sions also completed on Yom
Kippur, over the phone, asking
a nurse to hold up their phone
to the patient.

August incorporates more
sensory exercises into her time
with patients, asking what they
can smell, hear and look at,
trying to recreate the feeling of
a physical presence.

Having created new rituals
to honor patients’ specific
needs, August is no stranger
to making changes. She once
held a Havdalah for a patient,
bringing the braided candle,
wine and spices to a patient
before the pandemic, adjusting
the end-of-Shabbat customs to
an end-of-life ritual.

“We just keep incorporating
ancient ways into what we have
available to us now,” August said.

But even with the myriad
Rabbi Tsurah August, the staff
chaplain at Jewish Family and
Children’s Service of Greater
Philadelphia Courtesy of Tsurah August
logistic differences in the jobs
of those who work with dying
and deceased Jews, additional
rituals or liturgies that address
COVID aren’t a part of their
routines. “There’s been people that
went through the Spanish flu in
1919. There’s been people that
were Holocaust survivors, and
there’s been tragedy, but we’ve
made it through,” Levine said.

“The sadness is part of who we
are, and it makes us stronger, or
at least that’s the hope.”
Jews have always had to
weather tragedy and strife,
with COVID being no excep-
tion, Levine said. Jewish ritual
and liturgy already accounts
for Jewish strife and resilience.

Though the pandemic has
exposed more people to more
death, questions and compli-
cated feelings about death are
no more clear, August said.

The mystery of death remains
a focal point of the Jewish
tradition. “Sometimes [patients] will
ask me about Jewish beliefs
about death,” August said. “It’s
so varied; ask any Jew you’ll get
a different answer.”
August’s job isn’t to provide
the answer.

“People just want affirma-
tion of what they hope,” she
said. “I am there to help lift
what’s on their heart.” l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM