/In Jewish tradition, when a relative dies, the family "sits shiva" — literally "seven." For one week, various rites of mourning are observed. It is called "sitting shiva" because the mourner traditionally sits on a low stool to enact the feeling of being brought low by grief. The family gathers together and remembers the deceased. Friends visit and pay respects. Part of the rites of shiva consist in covering the mirrors of the household. There has been a loss of the Divine image in the world, embodied in the human face. Not only are mirrors symbols of inappropriate vanity at a time of grief, but not to look at one's face reminds us that the world has been diminished because one image of God, an image like ourselves, is gone.
— David J. Wolpe, Making Loss Matter