Who Sits Shiva

A Jewish individual who is mourning the loss of a loved one typically sits shiva. You are considered a mourner when your spouse, mother, father, brother, sister or child passes away.  Often, other relatives also sit shiva and mourn with you, but traditional Jewish law does not require their participation or consider them a mourner.

During the period of shiva, mourners traditionally sit on low stools or boxes while they recieve condolence calls. This is where the phrase “to sit shiva” comes from.

Suggested Books: 
A Time to Mourn, A Time to Comfort by Ron Wolfson 
Jewish Insights on Death and Mourning Edited by Jack Riemer & Sherwin B. Nuland 
The Jewish Way in Death and Mourning by Maurice Lamm
The Orphaned Adult: Confronting the Death of a Parent by Rabbi Marc Angel
When A Jew Dies: The Ethnography of a Bereaved Son by Samuel C Heilman