A comprehensive analysis of the ritual dimensions of biblical mourning rites, this book also seeks to illuminate mourning's social dimensions through engagement with anthropological discussion of mourning, from Hertz and van Gennep to contemporaries such as Metcalf and Huntington and Bloch and Parry.

Saul M. Olyan is Professor of Judaic Studies and Religious Studies at Brown University

• Introduction


• 1: Mourning the Dead


• 2: Petitionary Mourning


• 3: Mourning in Other Contexts


• 4: The Constraints on Mourning Rites


• 5: The Sanctioned Mixing of Mourning and Rejoicing


• Conclusion