Rending of Garments

(Heb. kery'ah). A MOURNING ritual. This halakhic obligation is derived indirectly from a prohibition addressed to Aaron and his surviving sons after the death of his sons Nadab and Abihu, namely, "uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes ..." (Yad, Hilkhot Evel 8:1; Lev. 10:6). If the High Priest had to be explicitly forbidden to rend his garments, this implied that other Jews (male and female) were obligated to do so. The sages ruled, based on Leviticus 21:2-3, that one should rend one's garments at the death of seven kindred: father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, and spouse (Shab. 105b). In the Bible, many figures are described as tearing their garments in mourning, reflecting a sense of separation or a feeling of guilt and loss and self-inflicted punishment: for example, Elisha for Elijah and Jacob for his son Joseph thought to have been killed by a wild animal. The keri'ah has to be performed at the moment the soul has "gone," or within the 30 days of mourning (Sheloshim). For parents there is no time limit, but it should be done as soon as possible. Rending not carried out in the heat of grief and with full emotional involvement is not considered appropriate (MK 24a). The rending, which is performed standing (MK 22b), has to be done on the outer garment only, on the right-hand side, and should be at least a handbreadth long. For parents the rent was traditionally made in all the clothes, until the heart was exposed (and therefore it was made on the left-hand side) (Joel 2:12). While for parents the garment is rent by hand, a knife or other instrument may be used for other kindred. The garments may be repaired seven days later, except in mourning for parents, where it is never repaired. According to several places in both Talmuds, when a sage dies, the whole community rends its garments, because it is "like his family" (TJ, MK 3:7). In a later development, the Talmud teaches that if one is present at a Death, rending is mandatory, even for a person not distinguished by learning or piety. Maimonides (Yad, Hilkhot Evel 9:2) mentions other occasions when garments are rent, including the death of one's Torah teacher or the Nasi (patriarch) or the head of the law court, seeing a burnt Scroll of the Law, seeing Jerusalem and the cities of Judah in their destruction, and seeing the site of the Temple. The person who rends recites the blessing, "Blessed is the judge of truth."

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