Understanding Death

Throughout history death has been viewed as an unwelcome, although familiar, enemy. On the eve of the Israelite nation's exodus from Egyptian slavery, a "death angel" was sent into all the unmarked homes to kill the first-born child there. During Medieval times, death became personified as the grim reaper - skeletal figure who glides about the earth shrouded in a black cloak and wielding a scythe to harvest the souls of men. The