DEUT1735 Our Yiddish ancestors [said] with their usual matter-of-fact directness: "Even to die one needs help; no corpse ever buried himself" (Yiddish proverb). And that means help from the entire community; going to a funeral of someone you don't know is as true a mitzvah as burying a family member. When few attend a funeral, we feel bad; when many come, it assuages our sense of loss and our intimations of our own mortality. And that attitude has created our new interest in hospice care. Respectful, loving attention in the face of the ultimate void that is death shows that gemilut hasadim is more than duty, but an extended, felt kindness in which, once again, we emulate our Creator: "And God buried Moses in the valley" [this verse].