In the Grip of Bereavement

During the year following his daughter's sudden death as a young adult, Dr. Chaim Licht observed the traditional Jewish mourning practices, yet found that he still had questions about the meaning of his family s experience. As a scholar of Jewish literature, he turned to the literature of the Aggada to explore the responses of the sages to similar situations.He combed the Ma asei Hakhamim, stories of the sages in the aggadic literature, for stories of parental bereavement, and analyzed the responses of the bereaved parents as well as the consolation that was offered to them by others. This collection of stories and Dr. Licht s analyses form a rich and detailed portrait of the traditional views of the Jewish sages on the meaning of and the proper reaction to the death of a child. In the Grip of Bereavement An Analysis of Ten Aggadic legends on Bereavement in The World of The Sages.