The Stages of Grief
AT TOURO SYNAGOGUE
ALSO ON FACEBOOK
Dear Friends,
A week ago we were in shock after the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh. This one struck close to home. I could not help but think that it could have happened to me at my synagogue.
At Touro Synagogue on Shabbat, Rabbi Marc Mandel observed how people reacted. Some are shocked, horrified, and can’t believe it.
Some think politically about the government and gun control, for example.
Others focus on what could have been done differently. Was there enough security, armed guards, an active shooter protocol?
Some of us are overwhelmed with sadness.
And then there are those who don’t have much to say.
“These are all natural reactions,” Rabbi Mandel said. “Elizabeth Kübler-Ross gives us a framework to helps us process this event, the five stages of grief, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.”
“Each one of those stages is normal. Sometimes we need to slow down and take a deep breath.”
There is an interesting article on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kübler-Ross_model about the Kübler-Ross model. The five stages were meant to describe the reaction of dying people to their situation, and were subsequently expanded to almost any loss. Criticisms involve the lack of evidence that these stages exist, and that a principal response to grief is resilience.
So if you didn’t go through the Kübler-Ross stages, that’s normal too!
Judaism also recognizes stages of mourning. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-phases-of-jewish-bereavement/
Shabbat Shalom from Jewish Newport!
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