To Mourn a Child: Jewish Responses to Neonatal and Childhood Death by Jeffrey Saks and Joel Wolowelsky

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In the realm of human experience, the death of a child is surely one of the most emotionally wrenching events. For a parent, the grief and pain are unendurable. In this book, Jeffrey Saks and Joel Wolowelsky have assembled an anthology which consists primarily of personal accounts written by parents who experienced the death of a child. In addition, there are essays by rabbis and healthcare professionals and selections from traditional Jewish sources. These are emotional pieces, as the parents describe the roller coaster of emotions, the bottomless grief, and the eventual coming to terms with the inevitable. Each story is moving, each tragedy is unique. Collectively, they help us imagine the unimaginable. It is not easy to read this book, but once you start, it will be hard for you to put it down as you are drawn in by each deeply personal narrative. Written by ordinary people from all walks of life, these selections are eloquent testimony to the strength of the human spirit and the redemptive power of Judaism.

Year first published: 2019