In my youth, the work of the chevra kad­disha (bur­ial soci­ety) was rarely men­tioned pub­licly. The prepa­ra­tion of bod­ies for bur­ial was large­ly the domain of a small group of pious indi­vid­u­als work­ing almost in secret. Thank­ful­ly, over the years, knowl­edge of the chevra kad­disha as well as the range of indi­vid­u­als involved in this holy work has spread. Now in its third edi­tion, this book intro­duces the tra­di­tion­al prac­tice of taharah (rit­u­al purifi­ca­tion). While remain­ing faith­ful to tra­di­tion­al prac­tice, the authors open the doors to par­tic­i­pa­tion in this mitz­vah to all seg­ments of the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty. Includ­ed in this work are prac­ti­cal guides to per­form­ing a taharah, the philo­soph­i­cal back­ground to the prac­tice, and prayers and read­ings to be incor­po­rat­ed into the taharah. Whether you are a novice or a vet­er­an of the chevra kad­disha, this book will give you new insights into the per­for­mance of this mitzvah.