A Time To Mourn

Aveilut As Minor Holiday

Rabbi Ben Greenfield

Lifecycle
Mourning
Ateret Zvi

Why are the laws of grief and mourning found in Mo’ed, the section of the Mishnah which focuses on holidays? In this essay, “A Time to Mourn: Aveilut as Minor Holiday,” Rabbi Ben Greenfield offers a creative understanding of mourning as a calendar phenomenon, which has profound implications for the experience of mourning in Judaism. This essay was awarded The Ateret Zvi Prize in Hiddushei Torah in 2022.

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