The mourning text faces an engraving of Jerusalem’s Kings’ Tombs

English translation

If burial already took place on the eve of a festival and the mourner began mourning before the festival, mourning need not begin again. If the eve of the festival fell on a Friday, even the beginning of mourning is not required. The prohibitions on cutting the hair and beard and taking part in joyful events apply throughout shloshim. During this period one changes one’s usual synagogue seat for another. The light in the room of death is kept burning for these thirty days. A festival ends not only shiva but also seven additional days of shloshim. If the final day of shiva falls on the eve of a festival, the festival ends shloshim completely. If news of the death is received after shloshim, shiva is limited to one hour. Mourning for parents lasts not thirty days, as it does for other relatives, but a full year (in a leap year, only twelve months). During the first eleven months the mourner recites Kaddish at services and uses a different synagogue seat throughout the year. Attendance at the theater and concerts is improper during the year of mourning. Maskir (requiem)—the reverent remembrance of dear departed people and the fervent prayer for the soul’s salvation and the dear departed person’s rest—is observed four times each year: on the last day of Passover, the second day of Shavuot, the eighth day of Sukkot, and on Yom Kippur. It should be noted that Maskir is not observed during the first year after a death. The Tombs of the Kings in Jerusalem.

English of the legible text, prepared for the Reichenbach Family Archive.

Same life

• Paul Reichenbach