Shiva in Pittsburgh
As I’ve been paying shiva calls to the families of the dead, one thing I’ve noticed is that people are hesitant to touch the food. Otherwise, In the midst of an unprecedented trauma—the aftermath of the worst mass-murder of Jews in American history—shiva feels poignantly and defiantly normal, a ritual whose contours don’t really change based on how or why or when an individual dies. In Pittsburgh, as anywhere else, friends and families gather and pray and begin to inch towards whatever consolation might lie in the months or years ahead.
Shiva minyans are being held at the homes of the victims and their family members and at the Jewish Community Center, a ten-minute walk up the street from the Tree of Life. When the services get around to “Aleynu,” often a triumphant uptempo conclusion to mincha or Maariv, the daveners begin the prayer in an atonal chant. The gorgeous concluding melody arises almost against the mourners’ will.