Ritual shroud (tachrichim) sewn by the Hevra Kaddisha

The tachrichim are the set of white linen funerary garments in which the deceased is wrapped for burial, according to Jewish tradition. Intentionally plain and uniform, without pockets or ornament, they express the equality of all before death, with rich and poor buried in the same manner. Their making was the responsibility of the Hevra Kaddisha, the burial confraternity charged with the washing of the dead (taharah) and the preparation of the burial according to precise rules. This shroud, sewn without ostentation, embodies the values of modesty and dignity that govern the rites of death in Ashkenazic Judaism.