I discovered this week one of the main features of judaism….The importance of memory and death. My mother-in-law passed away in the middle of the summer and had imposed her will to be cremated. This goes of course against all traditional jewish precepts. One rabbi was in Geneva and willing to support us, may he be thanked here, François Garaï, from the Liberal Jewish Community. This is all the nicest as, although neither my husband nor myself are strict observants, we nevertheless attend Orthodox jewish synagogues and have raised our kids this way.
At my mother-in-laws cremation ceremony, I discovered with great pleasure that women count as men in the Liberal Mynian (the minimum number of people needed to perform some prayers, which is normally 10 men). So despite the 9 men present on that occasion and thanks to a number of women, we were able to conduct the Kaddish prayer for the Dead.
This week, on Tuesday, took place the celebration of 30 days following my mother-in-law’s death. We decided that to balance the liberal ceremony we would this time hold an orthodox one. For this, we needed the 10 men and women couldn’t count anymore…I went through some real fears that we wouldn’t make the 10 but fortunately discovered that it is regarded as a very important action for men to be present and we had about 20 of them in the end…
Food for thoughts, for sure, but for thanks too!
COSMO POLITIQUE 