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The practices involved in Jewish mourning do not try to minimize pain or hide it from public view. Torah acknowledges the emotional turmoil (and often anger) that a mourner feels and provides a framework for its expression. In fact, tearing clothes highlights the mourner’s grief and encourages him to express it.1
The Torah mentions many examples of tearing one’s clothing when mourning. Jacob rent his garments when he assumed Joseph was dead, after seeing his bloodstained cloak.2 King David tore his clothes when King Saul died3 and the ever-suffering Job ripped his cloak4 as a sign of mourning.5
The soul has now shed its garment of expression in this life...the soul lives on; it has only outgrown this garment
A mourner must tear his clothing until he exposes his heart6. This conspicuous sign of his torn shirt represents the broken heart of the mourner.7
It also shows that the mourner can no longer express love to the departed, which is a painful realization.8 As he tears his garment, the mourner shows that his physical relationship with the departed has been severed.
Keriah (tearing the garments) contains a positive message as well. It conveys the duality of mourning. On the one hand, death is a painful loss and one expresses that pain by ripping one’s garment. On the other hand, a garment is not you; it is only an accessory.9
Likewise, the human body is the soul’s accessory. The soul has now shed its garment of expression in this life. There is a subtle message of hope in keriah - that the soul lives on; it has only outgrown this garment.
[Ed. note: Also read about 'How should a mourner tear his or her clothing (kriah)?' ]
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