one thing sitting shiva does do is allow the entire community to come together and acknowledge the realities of transition in a way that respects (ideally) the mourner and puts them at the center. once, in jerusalem, i was privileged to go to the house of my teacher after his mother had passed away. in his big-heartedness, and in his commitment to teaching, he accepted the fact that two! bus-loads! of students were going to come over and he sat with us, told us stories of his mother (she had hidden in the polish forests for 9 months during the holocaust, and made aliyah in her 60s!)and then patiently waited as a long, long line of students snaked past him, wishing him consolation. and he never rushed us out.

maybe part of shiva nata is finding the learning in the passing of the patterns?

b’shalom–
jessie

When I asked Google, it told me June 2008. We know this is not true because I can’t order it yet.

I am a very new, very small, learner of Dance of Shiva.

My Hebrew name is Chava or, if I’d been smarter before I started trying to use it in real life: Hava. No one in Kansas EVER got it right even after they heard me say it, never mind what happened when they saw it written in the way I tried to write it.

I love your blog and look forward to reading it daily.

Love and blessings,

Evy/Chava

I live in Washington State now.

That said, I can’t resist the urge to comment about the pronunciation of Shiva. If you’re going to be technically, excruciatingly correct about Sanskrit pronunciation, Shiva (the god) is also pronounced with a short i (stress on the first syllable), but hardly anybody but Sanskritists say it properly. I think it sounds prettier as SHEE-vuh anyway. Namaste.

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