Mirrors at the time of death.
Culture's greatest creation for pondering the mysteries of self-reference, is, of course, the mirror. And it is just this invention, found everywhere in the world, that — according to Jewish folk tradition — must be covered up on the occasion of death. Is it not perhaps a way of saying that the ultimate outcome of self-reflection is death? Or perhaps even a way of saying that when the final gauze separating this world of life and the other world of death has been momentarily torn, we must be especially careful to keep the portal of the mirror closed, lest there be additional passages going this way and that, between life and death?
Let us instead cover the mirrors, doing the best we can to endure the mystery and pain.
— Lawrence Kushner, Wrestling with the Angel by Jack Riemer, editor