Like so much of Jewish ritual, the rites and regulations surrounding death and grieving are highly structured. Tevi Troy explains why that’s a good thing:

By giving mourners specific roles, duties, and assignments, the formal practices can help the bereaved strengthen bonds and get support in the most painful early periods of loss.

In a profound and deeply touching ritual, when throwing dirt on the coffin, the bereaved begin with the flat or wrong side of the shovel, to show their reluctance to bury the dead. After that initial—and ineffectual—first shovel, they flip over the implement and do it the standard way. Friends and family line up to help fill the hole. . . .

The year of saying the kaddish prayer three times a day [following the death of a close relative] is a challenging one and can interfere with one’s regular schedule. By the time it is over, one feels relief. When I explained the entire process to a Catholic friend, he said to me, “Even for a Catholic that sounds like a lot.” It is indeed, but the formal rituals also help lead us, as a community, through the valley of the shadow of death that has been far too prevalent in recent days.

In October, a young Mauritanian national murdered an Orthodox Jewish man on his way to synagogue in Chicago. This alone should be sufficient sign of the rising dangers of anti-Semitism. Nathan Diament explains how the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act (AAA) can, if passed, make American Jews safer:

We were off to a promising start when the AAA sailed through the House of Representatives in the spring by a generous vote of 320 to 91, and 30 senators from both sides of the aisle jumped to sponsor the Senate version. Then the bill ground to a halt.

Fearful of antagonizing their left-wing activist base and putting vulnerable senators on the record, especially right before the November election, Democrats delayed bringing the AAA to the Senate floor for a vote. Now, the election is over, but the political games continue.

You can’t combat anti-Semitism if you can’t—or won’t—define it. Modern anti-Semites hide their hate behind virulent anti-Zionism. . . . The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act targets this loophole by codifying that the Department of Education must use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism in its application of Title VI.