PARIS — Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur thinks a lot about death.
In years past, she would typically stop by a cafe for a double espresso after officiating at a funeral. “I couldn’t go straight back to my children without creating a separation,” she said. “In Judaism there are folk tales that suggest the Angel of Death is following us. I didn’t want to bring death home.” [...]
The rabbi often asks herself why she is so preoccupied with death, and attributes it to officiating at least two funerals a week and being a grandchild of Holocaust survivors.
“I was brought into the world with an unspoken knowledge of tragedy,” she said. “I was clearly aware even as a child that ghosts haunted my life. Often, I walk in cemeteries and wonder what I’m looking for. I think I am trying to attend funerals that never took place. It is definitely haunting that the Shoah left us with millions of unburied souls, and it should continue to haunt all of us.” [...]
Her book, “Living With Our Dead,” has sold more than 250,000 copies, a rarity for a nonfiction hardcover in France.
Read the full profile in The New York Times.
