Community Book Burial

Gather your unwanted religious texts and join Jewish Cemeteries of Greater
Cincinnati for a community book burial at the Loveland Cemetery. Rabbi
Meredith Kahan, Senior Rabbi at Rockdale Temple, will officiate the service.

Judaism teaches that sacred texts and objects, when no longer usable, must be
treated not like garbage, but like the dead—that is, treated with dignity and
care and returned to the soil.
Anything with inherent sanctity—such as a Torah scroll, a mezuzah parchment,
tefillin, or a prayer book—contains holiness and would be considered sacred.
Items adjacent to holiness, like a mezuzah case or a tefillin bag, are
traditionally buried, too. The items to be buried are considered _sheimot_ ,
commonly pronounced “shaymos _.” _The term’s root is indeed the Hebrew word
for “names,” since a literal rule is to bury objects containing the name of
G-d.
While many synagogues have a _genizah_ (a “hidden” place to store sacred items
that have fallen out of use), Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Cincinnati does
not. Thus, we ask that you hold on to your _sheimot_ until our next annual
community burial event.

View event on Jlive: https://jlive.app/events/13246