Death Rests a While: Holy Day and Sabbath Effects on Jewish Mortality in Israel

The assumption of an association between religion, religiosity, and well-being is as old as social philosophy (Levin and Schiller 1987). “Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God” (Deut. XII:28). In most recent research, a positive, although weak, association has been found between religiosity, mainly measured by church attendance, and physical and mental well-being (Witter, Stock, Okun, and Haring 1985; Levin and Vanderpool 1987). The association between religion, religiosity andmortality, however, has received less attention until recently (Zuckerman, Kasl, and Ostfeld 1984; Jarvis and Norcott 1987; Kark, Shemi, Friedlander, Martin, Manor, and Blondheim, see chapter 12; Strawbridge Cohen, Shema, and Kaplan 1997; Oman and Reed 1998; Hummer, Roger, Nam, and Ellison 1999; Koenig et al. 1999). The purpose of this study is to investigate the patterns of daily mortality among the Jewish population of Israel before and after religious holy days and the weekly Sabbath.