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Jewish Death Practices:
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Visiting the Sick or Dying 
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Phases of Death Observance
    Approaching the Time of Death
    Between Death and Burial
    Shemira
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    Burial and Cremation 
    Mourning Practices

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Teshuvot (Responsa) On Death, Burial, and Mourning - Conservative Movement

 

Selected Teshuvot related to death, burial, and mourning

from the CJLS (Committee on Jewish Law and Standards) of the Rabbinical Assembly and

the Va'ad Halakhah (Law Committee) of the Rabbinical Assembly of Israel (shown below as "Masorti").

Source Subject Title with Link Reference Year Author
CJLS Organ Donation Organ Donation After Cardiac Death  YD 370:1 2010 Leonard Sharzer
CJLS Organ Donation Ad Heikhan Hu Bodek? -- Contemporary Criteria for the Declaration of Death

YD 370:1

2004

Daniel S. Nevins
CJLS Organ Donation Organ Donation

YD 336.

1999 Joel Roth
CJLS Organ Donation Organ and Tissue Donation Card

YD 336

1996 Joseph Prouser
CJLS Organ Donation Chesed or Chiuv: The Obligation to Preserve Life and the Question of Post-Mortem Organ Donations

YD 336

1995 Joseph H. Prouser
Masorti Organ Donation The Donation of Bodies to Medical Schools

YD 349:1-2; 357:1

 

Gilah Dror 
Masorti Organ Donation Organ Transplants and Donor Cards

YD 349:1-2; 357:1

 

David Golinkin
           
CJLS Suicide Suicide

YD 345:2

2005 Kassel Abelson
CJLS Suicide Assisted Suicide

YD 345

1997a

Elliot N. Dorff
CJLS Suicide Statement on Assisted Suicide

YD 345

1997b

 
           
CJLS Tahara I Shall Sprinkle Pure Water Upon You and You Shall Be Purified: A Question of Taharah

YD 352:3

1998

Ben Zion Bergman
Masorti Tahara The Tohorah Ritual

YD 352:4

 

David Golinkin 
Masorti Tahara Tohorah for those who Died of AIDS

YD 352:4.

 

Simchah Roth 
           
Masorti Funeral The Participation of Women in Funerals

YD 359

1986-7

David Golinkin
CJLS Funeral A Statement on Funerals in the Synagogue

YD 353:3

1983

Ben Zion Bokser
           
CJLS Cremation Cremation in the Jewish Tradition

YD 348

1986

Morris Shapiro
           
CJLS Burial of Non-Jews Burial of Non-Jewish Spouse and Children YD 367:1 2010 Kassel Abelson and Loel Weiss
CJLS Burial of Non-Jews Bury Him, Yes, Bury Him - A Concurring Opinion to Paul Plotkin's "Burial of Jews Practicing Christianity"
 

YD 345:5

1998

Myron S. Geller
CJLS Burial of Non-Jews Burial of Jews Practicing Christianity

YD 345:5

1994

Paul Plotkin
CJLS Burial of Non-Jews Peaceful Paths: Burial of Non-Jews in a Jewish Cemetery Following a Common Disaster

YD 367:1

1994

Myron S. Geller
           
CJLS Burial A Matter of Grave Concern: A Question of Mixed Burial

YD 367:1

1991

Ben Zion Bergman
Masorti Burial The Burial of Non-Jews in a Jewish Cemetery

YD 367:1

 

David Golinkin
Masorti Burial Burial in a Coffin in Eretz Yisrael

YD 362:1

 

Pesach Schindler 
Masorti Burial Engraving on a Gravestone a Name Which Was Added During an Illness

YD 335:10

 

David Golinkin
           
CJLS Disinterment Exhuming the Dead

YD 363

1996

Myron S. Geller
           
CJLS Mausoleum May a Mausoleum Be Used for Jewish Burial?

YD 362:1

1983

Morris Feldman
CJLS Mausoleum The Use of Mausoleums for Jewish Burial

YD 362:1

1983

David H. Lincoln
Masorti Mausoleum Layered Burial and Burial in Mausolea

YD 362:1

 

David Golinkin
           
CJLS Mourning Saying Kaddish for Twelve Months, A Valid Alternative

YD 376:4

2008 Richard Plavin and Mayer Rabinowitz
CJLS Mourning Welcoming Mourners on Shabbat

YD 400:1

2000

Baruch Frydman-Kohl
CJLS Mourning Converts Mourning the Death of Close Relatives

YD 374:5

1998

Joel Rembaum
Masorti Mourning Women and the Mourners' Kaddish

YD 376:4

5749

David Golinkin
           
CJLS Missing Persons Ritual of Mourning When a Body is Not Recovered

YD 375:7

2001

Kassel Abelson and
Mayer Rabinowitz
CJLS Missing Persons On the Status of Missing Persons

YD 397

1987

Isidoro Aizenberg
           
CJLS Pregnancy Loss What Should Jewish Practice Be Following a Stillbirth?

YD 340:30

1996a

Stephanie Dickstein
CJLS Pregnancy Loss What's In a Name?: A Concurrence and Dissent on the Ritual Practice Following a Stillbirth

YD 340:30

1996b

Ben Zion Bergman
CJLS Pregnancy Loss What Should Be Jewish Practice Following the Death of an Infant Who Lives Less Than Thirty One Days?

YD 374:8

1992a

Stephanie Dickstein
CJLS Pregnancy Loss Kiyyam Li: A Dissenting Concurrence

YD 374:8

1992b

Avram Israel Reisner
CJLS Pregnancy Loss Response to Miscarriage

YD 340:30

1991a

Debra Reed Blank
CJLS Pregnancy Loss Response to Miscarriage: An Alternate View

YD 340:30

1991b

Amy Eilberg
CJLS Pregnancy Loss Mourning for a Newborn

YD 374:8

1987

Isidoro Aizenberg
CJLS Pregnancy Loss Treatment of the Loss of a Fetus Through Miscarriage

YD 340:30

1987

Isidoro Aizenberg