Virtual Shmirah Library
The Virtual Shmirah Library contains digital files that shomrim can use as they perform shmirah, as well as a variety of additional materials to help deepen our understanding of end-of-life topics, both Jewish and general. To offer feedback or submit materials for consideration, please contact gailtosto@gmail.com.
IKAR Guidelines for Shemirah, information intended to help shomrim understand what to do.
Gail Tosto’s article about What Shmirah Means to Shomrim helps new-comers understand what this work feels like.
Shomrim Handbook Outline by Susan Barnes gives local leaders guidance how to create a handbook for local volunteers.
Prayers, Poems, and Reflections
- Blessings for Shmirah
- Changing of the Shmirah Shift_Rabbi Me’irah Iliinsky
- Dvar Torah_Chayei Sarah_E. Siegel
- Poem_Take Me
- Poem_The Grim Reaper
- Prayer for the Mitzvah of Shmirah
- What If We Treated Death Like Birth
- What Shmirah Means to Shomrim
- The Watchman’s Chair (Beth Hamon) – lyrics only | video
Psalms
- Tehillim (Psalms) online, in Hebrew (with recordings) and English
- Complete Psalms, chanted in Hebrew
- Psalm 51, chanted in Hebrew
- Psalm 90, recited in Hebrew
- Psalm, 90, in Hebrew, chanted, Sephardic tradition
- Psalm 91, in Hebrew, chanted, Sephardic tradition
- Psalm 104, excerpt, sung in Hebrew (Yamma Ensemble)
- Psalm 119, sung in Hebrew
- Psalm 121, sung in Hebrew
- Psalm 150, Hadar Maoz Music
- Psalm 150, Amy Robinson Music
Recordings
- Achat Sha’alti (Psalm 27:4) (Chava Mirel)
- May the Blessings of G-d Rest Upon You (David Zeller)
- May the Angels Carry You (Rabbi Geela Rayzel Raphael)
- Elohai Neshama (Shefa Gold, performed by Howling Harp)
- B’Shem haShem (Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach)
- B’Shem haShem (sung by Nechama and Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach)
- The Angel’s Blessing (Debbie Friedman, sung by the Mazeltones)
- Gam Ki Elech (Though I Walk) (Elli & Ravital Kranzler)
- Gam Ki Elech (Even as I Walk) (sung by Shlomo & Neshama Carlebach)
- T’fillat haDerech (Debbie Friedman)
- The Watchman’s Chair (Beth Hamon) – lyrics only | video
- A Jewish prayer with shofar (Yamma Ensemble)
- Shmirah Niggun (by Niccol Tzipporah Graf, Austin, TX)
For Further Exploration
- Article in the Forward about Karen Benioff Friedman’s taharah paintings
- Thoughts, poems, and more shared by members of Austin Shmirah
- An Online Generation Redefines Mourning_H. Seligson
- At a Pittsburgh Crime Scene, Jewish Volunteers Guard the Bodies of Holy Martyrs
- Burial society organization suggests new rituals_Forward
- Death during a pandemic
- Dying in Austin_Community Has Options When It Comes to Jewish Burial
- Guarding the Dead_E. Savage
- How Do I Make Peace with Dying_J. Kluger
- No Time to Mourn_B. Lucombe
- Painful New Choices in End-of-Life Care_Time, May 15 2020
- Reviving a Ritual of Tending to the Dead
- Taharah for Auschwitz Survivor_Forward
- Burying Amputated Limbs with the Body
- Tips on Honoring Jewish Dead and Comforting Jewish Mourners
- Share the Vigil: Frequently Asked Questions
- Singing to the Dead Rabbi Regina Sandler-Phillips
- Zombies, Vampires, and Things That Come Back to Life: A Rabbi’s Take on Halloween and Beyond Regina Sandler-Phillips
- All Through the Night: Reclaiming the Vigil in Times of Trauma
- Seven Steps to Sacred Fellowship Rabbi Regina Sandler-Phillips
- Drive-by Burials and Facetime Farewells T.S. Purdum
- For Italian Jews, the “Smell of Death” Is All Around C. Liphshiz