Mourning and Mitzvah

A Guided Journal for Walking the Mourner's Path Through Grief to Healing

by Ann Brener

Mourning and Mitzvah guides a mourner through the traditional phases of Jewish mourning using a contemporary approach. Ann Brener recognizes that our culture tends to relegate mourning to a private, brief and largely superficial process; while our ancestors knew that our souls need to spend time grieving for the loss death of someone we love.

Mourning and Mitzvah uses a series of exercises to help the mourner grieve. I suspect that the book is most helpful for those with some Jewish knowledge, but I believe that Jews and non-Jews can benefit from this book. I found that this book more than anything else helped me to deal with the death of my parents; and to learn that in addition to profound loss, there are also gifts of understanding that we can receive from experiencing the death of a loved one. I have given this book to several of my friends following the death of a parent.

Jewish Lights Publishing, 1993, ISBN: 1879045230

- Bob Evans

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