Kaddish (Magill’s Literary Annual 1999)
At a glance:
- Author: Leon Wieseltier
- First Published: 1998
- Type of Work: Religion and history
- Time of Work: The Middle Ages to the present
- Setting: Europe, the Middle East, and Brooklyn
- Genres: Nonfiction, History
- Subjects: Parents and children, Religion, Jews or Jewish life, Fathers, Death or dying, Funeral rites or ceremonies, Bereavement or grief, Judaism, Synagogues
- Locales: Europe, Brooklyn, NY, Middle East
Mourning is a highly prescribed ritual in Judaism. For a year after the death of a parent or other family member, the mourner must attend morning and evening prayers faithfully and, in the company of at least ten worshippers, recite the kaddish prayer, which glorifies the Deity and pleads for the “coming” of his “Kingdom.” Its poetic center consists of six parallel phrases that rise with incantatory power as they seem to grope for the best words to praise the power of the “Holy One (He is Blessed!).” Although the mourner’s kaddish is only slightly different from the...
[The entire page is 2047 words long]
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