How To Provide Emotional Support for Loved Ones Dealing with the Challenges of Memory Loss and Aging?

The holiday of Channukah involves getting together of the entire family, “a candle for a man and his household”. However, for a person sick with complex disease or a person with dementia, this is a deviation from their normal daily schedule, which can be disorienting and disturbing. With the proper conduct, this day can be a deep source of connection with the family and past memories for these people. This essay offers practical guidelines for dealing with this situation and assists in building a supportive, inclusive environment for a person with dementia.

Ahead of the high holidays, Tzohar Ad 120 convened a webinar to discuss the unique challenges facing families with loves one suffering from dementia.

How do we overcome loneliness? What is the biggest dilemma plaguing the Rabbinic world as Pesach approaches? And how can one get the most out of the Seder night during the COVID-19 pandemic? First published in Yediot Achronot.

Why does the Torah deal with secretions of a person’s body? What is the Torah’s approach towards death? And what is the meaning behind the halachot of purity and impurity?

We tend to push away death and avoid discussing it; At times due to fear, other times the heart is not free to deal with these issues and at times we are worried about the “Evil Eye”. From Yaakov Avinu we can learn quite the opposite.

Experience teaches us that the family does not always act in the patient’s best interests. What should we do, then, in a situation of doubt?

Chapter 21 from the booklet The Halakhot of Treating a Terminally Ill Patient and a Patient Suffering From Dementia

Chapter 20 from the booklet The Halakhot of Treating a Terminally Ill Patient and a Patient Suffering From Dementia