ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the development of mourning customs from the early stages of the kibbutz, where the sacred in terms of Jewish tradition was rejected as a matter of ideology, and where secular tradition had not yet developed. It shows that when a society sees in the collective the source of the sacred, a secular religion develops which requires the commitment of the individual to society. The chapter suggests collective patterns of mourning develop which replace traditional mourning rites. It also shows rituals of mourning in the kibbutz reflect the quality of existential experience in the different periods of kibbutz history. The chapter devotes the question of change in secular ritual and uses the kibbutz as a test case. It focuses on the development of mourning rituals in the kibbutz as a particular example of developing secular ritual. Socialist Zionism, had characteristics of secular religion; it was a system of symbols and action which gave ultimate meaning to human existence.
