OU TORAH Mourning Sarah By Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb

Grief is the most powerful and most painful of human emotions. Yet, it is an emotion which few human beings can avoid in their lifetime. We all face loss, and we all grieve. Interestingly, the first death of which we read in detail in the Bible is a murder. And the reaction of the murderer is one of denial and, ultimately, guilt. I speak, of course, of Cain’s slaying of Abel. We do not read of Cain’s grief, nor do we know at all of the reaction of Abel’s parents, Adam and Eve, to his death.