How to Recite the Blessing for Mourners

23. [In] a locale where it is customary to recite the blessing for mourners as three [separate blessings], they recite three; [where it is customary to recite] two, they recite two; [where it is customary to recite] one, they recite one.

24. [In] a locale where it is customary to recite the blessing for mourners as three [separate blessings], he inserts the first in [the blessing concerning] the resurrection of the dead and concludes it [with the words], “He who resurrects the dead”; [he inserts] the second in [the benediction concerning] comforting the mourners and concludes it [with the words,] “He Who comforts His people in His city”; [he inserts] the third in [the blessing concerning] lovingkindness and does not conclude [with a benedictory formula]. He who delivers a funeral address in a cemetery does not conclude [with a closing benedictory formula].

Translated by Tzvee Zahavy, adapted by Richard S. Sarason.

Credits

t. Berakhot 3:23–24, trans. Tzvee Zahavy, adapted from The Tosefta: Zeraim, ed. Jacob Neusner and Richard S. Sarason (Hoboken, N.J.: Ktav Publishing House Inc., 1986), pp. 18–19. Used with permission of the publisher.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.

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