[Avodah] Mourning for a parent

[Ben Waxman]

That is too much of applying modern day circumstances backwards. Keep in 
mind that pre-vaccinations, pre-clean water, pre-antibiotics, yes you 
expected a child to die and it was quite the norm. I lived in Niger for 
a while; there was an extremely high death rate of children before age 5 
from all sorts of diseases.  In the Middle Ages parents often would give 
two children the same name because they were fully confident that one 
would die.

Ben

On 6/14/2012 11:56 PM, Prof. Levine wrote:
>
>
> Everyone expects his parents to die if "things go normally".  This is 
> the way of the world. Children outlive parents in most cases.  
> Therefore,  there is a tendency to "forget" about the passing of a 
> parent, and a year of mourning is designed to prevent this.
>
> However, no one expects  a child to die.  It is a tremendous shock for 
> parents and is never forgotten.  Thus 30 days is enough, because the 
> passing of a child is never forgotten.

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