Artist’s family ends second period of mourning for Judaism tradition
“I feel inside me, rightly or wrongly, that I have had other lives and that I will have other lives,” said Silvio Santos on SBT in February 1988. Today marks 1 month since the most popular presenter on Brazilian TV died, at the age of 93, from bronchopneumonia after an infection with Influenza (H1N1).
“According to Jewish thought, death is not the end, but the beginning. Judaism considers this world a corridor, a preparation for the World to Come,” says a text from the Chevra Kadisha society, responsible for preparing the body and burial of Jews in São Paulo.
“This future world cannot be fully understood as long as the mind of man remains limited to its physical concepts. Nevertheless, man may suppose that in this existence noble souls prosper.”
Silvio was a descendant of Dom Isaac Abravanel, one of the most influential Portuguese Sephardic Jews of all time. His farewell followed all the rites of the Abrahamic religion, including the non-display of the body after the purification carried out following death.
Restricted to relatives and close friends, the burial took place at the Israelite cemetery of Butantã, in the west zone of the capital of São Paulo. Today, the 30th day after the death, is the end of Sheloshim, the second period of mourning (the first lasted until the 7th day).
According to Jewish tradition, on this date, family members visit the grave, read psalms, say prayers and can give speeches in honor of the deceased.
