Description: The Meanings of Death in Rabbinic Judaism is the first study of death and the mourning practices of Judaism's founders -- the Rabbis of late antiquity. David Kraemer examines the earliest canonical texts -- the Mishnah, the Tosefta, the Midrashim, and the Talmud -- to decipher what the ancient Jewish death rituals were. Through his examination of these vital Jewish texts, he is able to discover the unexpected irrational foundations of these beliefs. He also includes a discussion of evidence from the largest Jewish burial complex in antiquity, Beth Shearim, and an interpretation of the death rituals recorded in the Babylonian Talmud.

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