8JS Sephardi and Ashkenazi minhagim: Home

Among most Sephardic communities, kriah [tearing one’s garment] is performed as soon as the mourners return home from the cemetery. The traditional meal of condolence is prepared by the bur­ial society or family and friends. Mourners sit on the floor or on pillows, not on low stools. Daily services are held in the home and the Zohar [a mystical commentary on the Torah and other works] is studied throughout the week.

There is a division within the Jewish community that began thousands of years ago and continues to this day. It is not a division between religious denominations such as Reform, Conservative, Orthodox or Reconstructionist. The division is earlier and more pervasive – it is the division between Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews.