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Kaddish
A National Jewish Book Award-winning autobiography that's "an astonishing fusion of learning and psychic intensity; its poignance and lucidity should be an authentic benefit to readers, Jewish and gentile" ( The New York Times Book Review).
Children have obligations to their the Talmud says "one must honor him in life and one must honor him in death." Beside his father’s grave, a diligent but doubting son begins the mourner’s kaddish and realizes he needs to know more about the prayer issuing from his lips. So begins Leon Wieseltier’s National Jewish Book Award–winning autobiography, Kaddish , the spiritual journal of a man commanded by Jewish law to recite a prayer three times daily for a year and driven, by ardor of inquiry, to explore its origins. Here is one man’s urgent exploration of Jewish liturgy and law, from the 10th-century legend of a wayward ghost to the speculations of medieval scholars on the grief of God to the perplexities of a modern rabbi in the Kovno ghetto. Here too is a mourner’s unmannered response to the questions of fate, freedom, and faith stirred in death’s wake. Lyric, learned, and deeply moving, Wieseltier’s Kaddish is a narrative suffused with a son’s embracing the tradition bequeathed to him by his father, a scholar’s savoring they beauty he was taught to uncover, and a writer’s revealing it, proudly, unadorned, to the reader.
Children have obligations to their the Talmud says "one must honor him in life and one must honor him in death." Beside his father’s grave, a diligent but doubting son begins the mourner’s kaddish and realizes he needs to know more about the prayer issuing from his lips. So begins Leon Wieseltier’s National Jewish Book Award–winning autobiography, Kaddish , the spiritual journal of a man commanded by Jewish law to recite a prayer three times daily for a year and driven, by ardor of inquiry, to explore its origins. Here is one man’s urgent exploration of Jewish liturgy and law, from the 10th-century legend of a wayward ghost to the speculations of medieval scholars on the grief of God to the perplexities of a modern rabbi in the Kovno ghetto. Here too is a mourner’s unmannered response to the questions of fate, freedom, and faith stirred in death’s wake. Lyric, learned, and deeply moving, Wieseltier’s Kaddish is a narrative suffused with a son’s embracing the tradition bequeathed to him by his father, a scholar’s savoring they beauty he was taught to uncover, and a writer’s revealing it, proudly, unadorned, to the reader.
608 pages, Paperback
First published September 14, 1998
57 people are currently reading
551 people want to read
About the author
Leon Wieseltier
36 books28 followersLeon Wieseltier is a American writer, critic, and magazine editor. Since 1983 he has been the literary editor of The New Republic.
Wieseltier was born in Brooklyn, New York and attended the Yeshivah of Flatbush, Columbia University, Oxford University, and Harvard University, and was a member of Harvard's Society of Fellows from 1979-1982.
Wieseltier has published several fictional and non-fictional books. Kaddish, a National Book Award finalist in 2000, is a genre-blending meditation on the Jewish prayers of mourning. Against Identity is a collection of thoughts about the modern notion of identity.
Wieseltier was born in Brooklyn, New York and attended the Yeshivah of Flatbush, Columbia University, Oxford University, and Harvard University, and was a member of Harvard's Society of Fellows from 1979-1982.
Wieseltier has published several fictional and non-fictional books. Kaddish, a National Book Award finalist in 2000, is a genre-blending meditation on the Jewish prayers of mourning. Against Identity is a collection of thoughts about the modern notion of identity.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
April 11, 2017
Leon Wieseltier is the Literary Editor of The New Republic, a magazine I have subscribed to for the past 4 years. His all-too-rare columns are marvelously written and give a profound mixture of love of Judaism and humanity. His story is one of a smart young, orthodox philosophy student who strayed away from his severe religiosity to become one of our foremost cultural critics.
You can take the boy out of Yeshiva, but you can't take the Yeshiva out of the boy. When Wieseltier's father died in 1996, he chose to honor him in the most traditional way: by observing the law that, from death until unveiling of the gravestone, the son is to say Kaddish thrice daily: at Ma'ariv (night), Shacharis (morning), and Mincha (afternoon). Wieseltier being who he is, decides to investigate in depth as from where this ritual stems.
Kaddish is a journal of this investigation. The end product is a treasure: a combination of deep scholarship, profound love, and emotional writing style. At nearly 600 dense pages (and I mean "dense" in the intellectual manner - the subject matter is daunting), it is a gargantuan challenge of a read, but one that will leave the reader all the better for the investment. Kaddish is an introduction to - and criticism of - the medieval sages: Nachmanides, Rashi, Isaac ben Luria, Mainmonides, and many more. It is a tale of the difficulty involved in being a busy, secular Jew and trying to rearrange one's schedule so that thrice-daily prayer - which formerly never was a consideration - may now be accomplished. And accomplished with joy in the heart and mind, not just an empty recitation of meaningless words. For Wieseltier - and the reader of this book - no word is meaningless, no prayer an empty recitation.
This book had further meaning for me, as I made a rather weak attempt at this after my mother died in 2003. I managed for only the immediate period of 30 days - 11 months was just too much, and I wasn't even running part of a major magazine! In my opinion, though, this is one of the most important books on Judaism to come out in the past decade, and will likely remain that way. The subject matter - and the way in which it is treated - is timeless. It may not convert the secular to religious Judaism, but will convert the secular to thinking about Judaism. How does one reconcile modern sensibilities of a liberal Jew with the ancient practices that held us together as a people for thousands of years? Wieseltier is just the man to answer this question, and Kaddish the medium in which to express that answer.
I learned two valuable things from this book. First, I learned a very good explanation of the purpose behind why we recite the Kaddish: we as parents are responsible for our kids. Specifically, if we raise the sort of kids that respect tradition enough to recite the Kaddish, then our souls will be free in the afterlife. Second, I learned a host of medieval writings and attitudes on Judaism, an education in and of itself.
Most highly recommended for every thinking Jew and Gentile interested in Judaism.
You can take the boy out of Yeshiva, but you can't take the Yeshiva out of the boy. When Wieseltier's father died in 1996, he chose to honor him in the most traditional way: by observing the law that, from death until unveiling of the gravestone, the son is to say Kaddish thrice daily: at Ma'ariv (night), Shacharis (morning), and Mincha (afternoon). Wieseltier being who he is, decides to investigate in depth as from where this ritual stems.
Kaddish is a journal of this investigation. The end product is a treasure: a combination of deep scholarship, profound love, and emotional writing style. At nearly 600 dense pages (and I mean "dense" in the intellectual manner - the subject matter is daunting), it is a gargantuan challenge of a read, but one that will leave the reader all the better for the investment. Kaddish is an introduction to - and criticism of - the medieval sages: Nachmanides, Rashi, Isaac ben Luria, Mainmonides, and many more. It is a tale of the difficulty involved in being a busy, secular Jew and trying to rearrange one's schedule so that thrice-daily prayer - which formerly never was a consideration - may now be accomplished. And accomplished with joy in the heart and mind, not just an empty recitation of meaningless words. For Wieseltier - and the reader of this book - no word is meaningless, no prayer an empty recitation.
This book had further meaning for me, as I made a rather weak attempt at this after my mother died in 2003. I managed for only the immediate period of 30 days - 11 months was just too much, and I wasn't even running part of a major magazine! In my opinion, though, this is one of the most important books on Judaism to come out in the past decade, and will likely remain that way. The subject matter - and the way in which it is treated - is timeless. It may not convert the secular to religious Judaism, but will convert the secular to thinking about Judaism. How does one reconcile modern sensibilities of a liberal Jew with the ancient practices that held us together as a people for thousands of years? Wieseltier is just the man to answer this question, and Kaddish the medium in which to express that answer.
I learned two valuable things from this book. First, I learned a very good explanation of the purpose behind why we recite the Kaddish: we as parents are responsible for our kids. Specifically, if we raise the sort of kids that respect tradition enough to recite the Kaddish, then our souls will be free in the afterlife. Second, I learned a host of medieval writings and attitudes on Judaism, an education in and of itself.
Most highly recommended for every thinking Jew and Gentile interested in Judaism.
July 25, 2016
I remember seeing this on my dad's bedside table a few years back. At the end of the shiva I looked for it to bring back home with me.
I was expecting more memoir and less esoteric review of the history of and responsa surrounding the mourners' kaddish, but it didn't matter.
Moving and learned, Wieseltier is terrific on the distinction between grief and mourning and the obligations a son has to his father. I was advised during the shiva to wait a few months before reading this to get the best out of it. I did and it was worth it.
I was expecting more memoir and less esoteric review of the history of and responsa surrounding the mourners' kaddish, but it didn't matter.
Moving and learned, Wieseltier is terrific on the distinction between grief and mourning and the obligations a son has to his father. I was advised during the shiva to wait a few months before reading this to get the best out of it. I did and it was worth it.
November 14, 2017
In this book, the author shares his thoughts and learnings throughout 11 months of saying kaddish for his father. At 608 pages, it is a very LONG book, but its freeflow style - blending the intellectual with the informality of almost a personal conversation with the reader - makes it thoroughly enjoyable and fascinating. As someone who suffers from anxiety issues, my favorite passage from the book was: "We are commanded to serve the Lord with all our heart and all our soul and all our might, with everything we have. I am serving the Lord with all my nerves."
September 5, 2008
This was a wonderful book that goes in depth on the rabbinic commentary and exegesis of the mourner's prayer, the Kaddish. Much Talmudic speculation. At times the obsessive nit-picking of seemingly irrelevant and unimportant points of the law got a little tedious, but overall, this was a strong introduction to Talmudic midrash wrapped up in a secular Jew's ponderously intellectual year of mourning.
August 8, 2023
Book Review
Kaddish
5/5 stars
"An extravagant intellectual edifice"
*******
Essentially, this book is the story of a lapsed Jew (of *extremely* superior intellect and verbal ability) who, while following tradition and reciting kaddish for his deceased father for a year enters into an intellectual odyssey about the origins of the kaddish (which actually says nothing about death or mourning).
And yet it is so much more.
Wieselter himself defined the book in a TV interview: "It is a combination of a scholarly work (on the origins of the Jewish customs of mourning); a philosophical work (on death and mortality); and a spiritual journal. As writers discover when they're writing something with an inner necessity, then those external questions fall away and ultimately the work is what it is."
It is written in the most difficult way, which is: as a series of aphorisms. It puts me in mind of Eric Hoffer, who also wrote this way. (Oh, but that I could write this way; all people who put pen to paper should aspire to write like this.)
I don't heretofore remember reading a book so difficult or that took so much intellectual bandwidth (it took me every bit of 7 months of stopping and starting before it was finished; I had to consciously make a decision to not read other books until this one was done)
The book is in 16 parts, all marked by Roman numerals, with no titles, and really no clear reason that I can discern for the breaks.
∆∆∆First is that:
It's absolutely maddening that the book is not indexed, nor is there a single citation for these voluminous texts that the author brings down. Also, something like a timeline would have been helpful to clarify exactly how many hundreds of years it took for this discussion to complete itself.
Wieseltier is (or was) an Orthodox Jew, and so he knows the importance of citing references; on the other hand, foundational Jewish texts such as "Mishneh Torah" also deliberately did not cite references in order to close the way for a bunch of later bickering and counter arguments.
And that may be the line of reasoning of this author.
∆∆∆Second is that:
It makes the reader know that the literature of Judaism is unconquerably large. It almost seems like it would be better to not get started at all, because once you did start then there's no possible way to finish.
For all of the massive bulk of responsa on Jewish law ("Halacha"), over 99% of it is ignored. And of that small residual bit which is studied, only the conclusions are studied and not usually the original text. (I have talked to people that are professional students and rabbis, and they have not heard of the majority of these texts--or if they have heard of them, it has only been vaguely.)
If somebody thought to study source texts from 1,000 years ago in order to trace the history of something, then there would be a whole book there.
*Is* a whole book there, as happens in this case.
∆∆∆Third is that:
Between all of the later rabbinic interpretations and pseudepigraphia, how can someone know what's real? (For instance, the story of Akiva and the tax collector from Lodkiya is nowhere to be found in any texts even roughly contemporaneous with Akiva himself. And even in 17th century Amsterdam, "No one version of this story is like another" [p.128].)
*******
What do we learn from this author's deep dive into historical sources about kaddish?
1. The Mourners' Kaddish is not something that sprang into existence right at the beginning of Rabbinic Judaism-nor had it appeared by the time of Mishneh Torah. It varied between Ashkenazim and Sephardim as far back as 1305 CE. Even in certain parts of Europe, the old custom of one person reciting Kaddish on behalf of everyone is still the custom (p.390).
2. We get a taste of the many scholars that were instrumental in shaping Judaism into the form that it currently exists--at this moment. (Maimonides. Rashi. Nahmanides. Moses of Coucy. Judah the Pious (d. 1217, CE). And many others. In current times, it seems like every second or third adult Jewish Orthodox male calls himself "Rabbi," and it's easy to forget just how few people were involved in the foundational parts of earlier Judaism.
3. There exists a Geonic document called "The Registry of the Differences Between the Customs of Israel and the Customs of Babylonia."
4. A lot of things are later interpolations. (p. 97-- "Who was Solomon of Lyon? I have never heard of such a figure. The text indicates that this is a later interpolation into the book.") In this case, the story (in which R'Akiva teaches a man's son so that that son may recite on his punished father's behalf) is pseudepigraphical (p.386).
5. The customs come and the customs go; communities randomly choose one or the other, and after enough time passes it's like the opposition never was. For example, some people specifically avoided drinking water or taking a meal between Musaf and Mincha (Rabbeinu Tam). Nowadays all have kiddush and seudah shlishit.
6. Kedusha d'sidra (Uva letzion, said at Mincha Shabbat) is said on behalf of the Dead who must go back to Gehenna at the end of the Sabbath. This was true by the 13th century, although before then Justification of Judgment ("BDE") was said.
7. (p.314) There was even discussion about the custom to feed mourners round foods, and whether that was best served by lentils or eggs. Of course, eggs won out... But there was discussion.
8. (p.314). Kaddish is said for 11 months by a child for a parent, and not the full 12 so it's to not impute wickedness to him. But, a friend who who says it for a person that is childless is under no such obligation, and he may say it for the full 12. (Feinstein).
9. Does the son acquit the father or does the father acquit the son? It seems that the ruling has come down that the father cannot acquit the son to the extent that the son can acquit the father (p.387). And that explains why the child recites for 11 months for a parent, but everybody else recites only for 30 days.
10. It seems that the Sephardim had developed the custom of all mourners saying the kaddish in unison much earlier than the Ashkenazim (t appears to be around 1831), and there was lots of back and forth before this accommodation was finally reached. Centuries of back and forth.
11. "Even though he sinned, he is a Jew" is said to be one of the most momentous sentences in the history of the Jews." It is Talmudic. (p.449). These days, that statement has been severely canceled/qualified and seems to no longer extend to converts.
12. The custom to not take a haircut during the days of mourning was initially accustomed to wrap the head in the manner of the Arabs ("Ishmaelites"). It was a bit too uncomfortable in Christian lands and so an alteration had to be made by the Ashkenazim.(pps. 483-485); this was made to avoid ridicule sometimes, and for purposes of physical safety others.
13. Kaddish yatom (orphan's kaddish) was enacted rabbinically because children are too young to say "Barechu" and because Kaddish is insignificant enough for minors to say it.
14. All enactments of kaddish are rabbinic, and it was originally a doxology for after teaching and preaching.
Second order thoughts:
1. If I didn't know before, I know now that: it is quite pointless to forward engineer correct or true answers; what is "true" is what has survived by happenstance. Or whatever. Even though it is this way, there's no reason that it could not have been different.
What is the point of trying to ascertain truth? It's very much like trying to build a physical structure on quicksand.
2. It is interesting to speculate what Judaism will turn into in the next several centuries, given that everybody is a rabbi and needs to find some way to differentiate his product from all of these competitors.
It took several hundred years to resolve these issues around kaddish with many fewer cooks in the kitchen; in the near future, I could imagine some issue coming up that will not be resolved before the heat death of the universe.
Verdict:
Recommended, but it is not for the faint of heart.
It's a real slog, but it is worth it just for Wieselter's exquisite prose craftsmanship.
After spending a very long time oscillating between donating the book and keeping it, I think I have decided on the latter.
-On the one hand, there is so much to be gleaned that it cannot be done on the first pass and a second pass is necessary. On the other, reading the book The First Time took so much out of me that is hard to imagine doing it again.
-On the one hand, this can give a reader familiarity with a VAST number of unknown/understudied sources.
-On the other, there are only a tiny fraction of even the most Orthodox people who actually have read these sources--and so whom are/would you be addressing?
Vocabulary:
Christological awkwardness
peroration
rostrum (amud)
precentor (shliach tzibbur/ cantor/ chazzan)
calumny
prayer quorum (minyan)
exequies
antinomian
trisagion (".......קדוש, קדוש, קדוש")
expiation
salvific
scion
teleological
Rashi literature
Justification of the Judgment (tsiduk ha'din)
animadversion
"Demand The Reason" (p.88).
provenance
glossator
ratiocination
apotropaically
mystagogues
Pseudepigraphic
Tosafists (Talmudic
masterminds of Franco German Jewry in the High Middle Ages)
miter hat
theosophy
theurgy
quiddity
excursus
apotheosis
chiliastic
angelology
perdurability
grappa
mitron/ matran
chaperon
kappe (German word for Jewish hair covering)
storz
Heraclitean River
monist
antinomy
Texts:
Arb'ah Turim
Sefer Mitzvot Gadol
Ma'aseh haMikhri
Shibbolei ha'Leket
Nishmat Chayim
Torat haAdam
Machzor Vitry
Kol Bo
Alphabet of Rabbi Akiva
Rashi's Siddur
"Rashi Literature"
Old Jewish Aramaic Prayer: The Kaddish
Yeah Nohalim (The Bequest)
Hegyon ha'nefesh ha'Atsuvah (Reflections of the sad soul)
Responses of the Tongue (Ma'aneh Lashon)
Sefer Yetsirah (The Book of Creation)
Etz Chaim (Tree of Life)
Zohar Hadash
Hibbur Yafeh me-Ha'Yeshua
Midrash Tanhuma
Shomer Emunim (Keeper of the Faiths)
Tanna D'Bei Eliyahu Zuta (The Teaching of the School of Elijah, the Lesser Version)
Torat Buddha
Sefer Hasidim/Book of the Pious
Ma'amar Hikur HaDin (An Essay Inquiring Into Judgment)
Megillat Efra (The Scroll of Darkness)
Milhamot ha'shem (The Wars of The Lord)
Noda Be'Yehudah (Renowned in Judah)
Crossing the Jabbok/Ma'avarYabbok
The Pitcher of Flour/Kad ha'Kemah
Aruch HaShulchan
Masekhet Hibut (The Tractate of The Torments of the Grave)
Midrash Tanhuma
The Book Of The Orchard (Sefer haPardes)
Sefer Mitzva'ot Katan (The Small Book of Commandments)
Book of Customs
Emek haBakhah (The Vale of Weeping)
Sefer haDema'ot (The Book of Tears)
Sefer haMinhagim (Book of Customs)
Scholars:
Menashe Ben Israel
Abraham ben Isaac
Saadia Gaon
Yosef Solovetchik (The Rav)
Simcha Bunim Pesicha
Sy Agnon
Nahmanides
Hayim Judah Ehrenreich
Aaron of Lunel (Aaron ben Meshulam Ben Yaakov)
Isaiah of Train
Zedakiah the Physician
Meir Ben Baruch of Rothenberg
Eliezer of Worms
Moses of Coucy
Isaac ben Ghiyyat
Eliezer Ben Yohel haLevi
Ephraim Margolioth
Ezekiel Katzenellenbogen
David deSola Pool
Abraham Horowitz
David Ben Joseph Abudarham
Isaac ben Sheshet Perfect
Bahya Ben Asher of Saragossa
Hai Gaon
Nahum ha'Pakuli
Isaac ben Jacob Alfasi
Rabbi Eleazar ben Arakh
Hayyim Yosef David Azulai
Nissim Ben Jacob
Isaac Aboab
Aaron Roth
Solomon Buber
(Zeev Zabotinsky)
(Getzel Selikovitch)
Judah the Pious
Menachem Azariah of Fano
Judah Loew Ben Bezalel
Ezekiel Landau
Abraham of Minsk (Abraham ben Judah Leib Maskileison)
Menachem haMeiri
Solomon ben Abraham Adret
Aaron Berachiah Ben Moses of Modena
Bahya Ben Asher of Saragossa
Yechiel Michel Epstein
Moses Isserles (The Rema)
Adolf Jellinek
Benjamin Zev ben Mattathias
Meir Ben Isaac Katzenellenbogen
Israel Isserlein
Joseph Garçon (Portuguese exile of Castilian origin)
Moses Mintz (German Talmudist)
Jacob Moellin (Maharil)
Mordecai ben Abraham Jaffe
Abraham Gombiner (Mogen Avraham)
Moses Sofer (Chatam Sofer)
Zvi Hirsch Chajes
Akiva Eger
Beer Oppenheim
Jacob Ettlinger
David ben Zimra (Radbaz)
Jacob Ben Asher (Ba'al ha Turim)
Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet
Eliezer Ben Nathan
Solomon ben Sampson of Worms
Isaac ben Samuel of Dampierre
Isaac of Corbeil
Rabbi Abba bar Zabda
David ben Hayyim haCohen
Meshullam Finkelstein of Warsaw
Joseph Hahn Nordlingen
Sherira Gaon
Nathan Ben Jehiel
Hananel Ben Hushiel
Joseph haCohen
Simon Bernfeld
Meir Segal (Meir Ben Baruch haLevi of Fulda)
Isaac of Tyrnau
Yosef Ben Mattathias Reeves
Isaiah Astruc
Kaddish
5/5 stars
"An extravagant intellectual edifice"
*******
Essentially, this book is the story of a lapsed Jew (of *extremely* superior intellect and verbal ability) who, while following tradition and reciting kaddish for his deceased father for a year enters into an intellectual odyssey about the origins of the kaddish (which actually says nothing about death or mourning).
And yet it is so much more.
Wieselter himself defined the book in a TV interview: "It is a combination of a scholarly work (on the origins of the Jewish customs of mourning); a philosophical work (on death and mortality); and a spiritual journal. As writers discover when they're writing something with an inner necessity, then those external questions fall away and ultimately the work is what it is."
It is written in the most difficult way, which is: as a series of aphorisms. It puts me in mind of Eric Hoffer, who also wrote this way. (Oh, but that I could write this way; all people who put pen to paper should aspire to write like this.)
I don't heretofore remember reading a book so difficult or that took so much intellectual bandwidth (it took me every bit of 7 months of stopping and starting before it was finished; I had to consciously make a decision to not read other books until this one was done)
The book is in 16 parts, all marked by Roman numerals, with no titles, and really no clear reason that I can discern for the breaks.
∆∆∆First is that:
It's absolutely maddening that the book is not indexed, nor is there a single citation for these voluminous texts that the author brings down. Also, something like a timeline would have been helpful to clarify exactly how many hundreds of years it took for this discussion to complete itself.
Wieseltier is (or was) an Orthodox Jew, and so he knows the importance of citing references; on the other hand, foundational Jewish texts such as "Mishneh Torah" also deliberately did not cite references in order to close the way for a bunch of later bickering and counter arguments.
And that may be the line of reasoning of this author.
∆∆∆Second is that:
It makes the reader know that the literature of Judaism is unconquerably large. It almost seems like it would be better to not get started at all, because once you did start then there's no possible way to finish.
For all of the massive bulk of responsa on Jewish law ("Halacha"), over 99% of it is ignored. And of that small residual bit which is studied, only the conclusions are studied and not usually the original text. (I have talked to people that are professional students and rabbis, and they have not heard of the majority of these texts--or if they have heard of them, it has only been vaguely.)
If somebody thought to study source texts from 1,000 years ago in order to trace the history of something, then there would be a whole book there.
*Is* a whole book there, as happens in this case.
∆∆∆Third is that:
Between all of the later rabbinic interpretations and pseudepigraphia, how can someone know what's real? (For instance, the story of Akiva and the tax collector from Lodkiya is nowhere to be found in any texts even roughly contemporaneous with Akiva himself. And even in 17th century Amsterdam, "No one version of this story is like another" [p.128].)
*******
What do we learn from this author's deep dive into historical sources about kaddish?
1. The Mourners' Kaddish is not something that sprang into existence right at the beginning of Rabbinic Judaism-nor had it appeared by the time of Mishneh Torah. It varied between Ashkenazim and Sephardim as far back as 1305 CE. Even in certain parts of Europe, the old custom of one person reciting Kaddish on behalf of everyone is still the custom (p.390).
2. We get a taste of the many scholars that were instrumental in shaping Judaism into the form that it currently exists--at this moment. (Maimonides. Rashi. Nahmanides. Moses of Coucy. Judah the Pious (d. 1217, CE). And many others. In current times, it seems like every second or third adult Jewish Orthodox male calls himself "Rabbi," and it's easy to forget just how few people were involved in the foundational parts of earlier Judaism.
3. There exists a Geonic document called "The Registry of the Differences Between the Customs of Israel and the Customs of Babylonia."
4. A lot of things are later interpolations. (p. 97-- "Who was Solomon of Lyon? I have never heard of such a figure. The text indicates that this is a later interpolation into the book.") In this case, the story (in which R'Akiva teaches a man's son so that that son may recite on his punished father's behalf) is pseudepigraphical (p.386).
5. The customs come and the customs go; communities randomly choose one or the other, and after enough time passes it's like the opposition never was. For example, some people specifically avoided drinking water or taking a meal between Musaf and Mincha (Rabbeinu Tam). Nowadays all have kiddush and seudah shlishit.
6. Kedusha d'sidra (Uva letzion, said at Mincha Shabbat) is said on behalf of the Dead who must go back to Gehenna at the end of the Sabbath. This was true by the 13th century, although before then Justification of Judgment ("BDE") was said.
7. (p.314) There was even discussion about the custom to feed mourners round foods, and whether that was best served by lentils or eggs. Of course, eggs won out... But there was discussion.
8. (p.314). Kaddish is said for 11 months by a child for a parent, and not the full 12 so it's to not impute wickedness to him. But, a friend who who says it for a person that is childless is under no such obligation, and he may say it for the full 12. (Feinstein).
9. Does the son acquit the father or does the father acquit the son? It seems that the ruling has come down that the father cannot acquit the son to the extent that the son can acquit the father (p.387). And that explains why the child recites for 11 months for a parent, but everybody else recites only for 30 days.
10. It seems that the Sephardim had developed the custom of all mourners saying the kaddish in unison much earlier than the Ashkenazim (t appears to be around 1831), and there was lots of back and forth before this accommodation was finally reached. Centuries of back and forth.
11. "Even though he sinned, he is a Jew" is said to be one of the most momentous sentences in the history of the Jews." It is Talmudic. (p.449). These days, that statement has been severely canceled/qualified and seems to no longer extend to converts.
12. The custom to not take a haircut during the days of mourning was initially accustomed to wrap the head in the manner of the Arabs ("Ishmaelites"). It was a bit too uncomfortable in Christian lands and so an alteration had to be made by the Ashkenazim.(pps. 483-485); this was made to avoid ridicule sometimes, and for purposes of physical safety others.
13. Kaddish yatom (orphan's kaddish) was enacted rabbinically because children are too young to say "Barechu" and because Kaddish is insignificant enough for minors to say it.
14. All enactments of kaddish are rabbinic, and it was originally a doxology for after teaching and preaching.
Second order thoughts:
1. If I didn't know before, I know now that: it is quite pointless to forward engineer correct or true answers; what is "true" is what has survived by happenstance. Or whatever. Even though it is this way, there's no reason that it could not have been different.
What is the point of trying to ascertain truth? It's very much like trying to build a physical structure on quicksand.
2. It is interesting to speculate what Judaism will turn into in the next several centuries, given that everybody is a rabbi and needs to find some way to differentiate his product from all of these competitors.
It took several hundred years to resolve these issues around kaddish with many fewer cooks in the kitchen; in the near future, I could imagine some issue coming up that will not be resolved before the heat death of the universe.
Verdict:
Recommended, but it is not for the faint of heart.
It's a real slog, but it is worth it just for Wieselter's exquisite prose craftsmanship.
After spending a very long time oscillating between donating the book and keeping it, I think I have decided on the latter.
-On the one hand, there is so much to be gleaned that it cannot be done on the first pass and a second pass is necessary. On the other, reading the book The First Time took so much out of me that is hard to imagine doing it again.
-On the one hand, this can give a reader familiarity with a VAST number of unknown/understudied sources.
-On the other, there are only a tiny fraction of even the most Orthodox people who actually have read these sources--and so whom are/would you be addressing?
Vocabulary:
Christological awkwardness
peroration
rostrum (amud)
precentor (shliach tzibbur/ cantor/ chazzan)
calumny
prayer quorum (minyan)
exequies
antinomian
trisagion (".......קדוש, קדוש, קדוש")
expiation
salvific
scion
teleological
Rashi literature
Justification of the Judgment (tsiduk ha'din)
animadversion
"Demand The Reason" (p.88).
provenance
glossator
ratiocination
apotropaically
mystagogues
Pseudepigraphic
Tosafists (Talmudic
masterminds of Franco German Jewry in the High Middle Ages)
miter hat
theosophy
theurgy
quiddity
excursus
apotheosis
chiliastic
angelology
perdurability
grappa
mitron/ matran
chaperon
kappe (German word for Jewish hair covering)
storz
Heraclitean River
monist
antinomy
Texts:
Arb'ah Turim
Sefer Mitzvot Gadol
Ma'aseh haMikhri
Shibbolei ha'Leket
Nishmat Chayim
Torat haAdam
Machzor Vitry
Kol Bo
Alphabet of Rabbi Akiva
Rashi's Siddur
"Rashi Literature"
Old Jewish Aramaic Prayer: The Kaddish
Yeah Nohalim (The Bequest)
Hegyon ha'nefesh ha'Atsuvah (Reflections of the sad soul)
Responses of the Tongue (Ma'aneh Lashon)
Sefer Yetsirah (The Book of Creation)
Etz Chaim (Tree of Life)
Zohar Hadash
Hibbur Yafeh me-Ha'Yeshua
Midrash Tanhuma
Shomer Emunim (Keeper of the Faiths)
Tanna D'Bei Eliyahu Zuta (The Teaching of the School of Elijah, the Lesser Version)
Torat Buddha
Sefer Hasidim/Book of the Pious
Ma'amar Hikur HaDin (An Essay Inquiring Into Judgment)
Megillat Efra (The Scroll of Darkness)
Milhamot ha'shem (The Wars of The Lord)
Noda Be'Yehudah (Renowned in Judah)
Crossing the Jabbok/Ma'avarYabbok
The Pitcher of Flour/Kad ha'Kemah
Aruch HaShulchan
Masekhet Hibut (The Tractate of The Torments of the Grave)
Midrash Tanhuma
The Book Of The Orchard (Sefer haPardes)
Sefer Mitzva'ot Katan (The Small Book of Commandments)
Book of Customs
Emek haBakhah (The Vale of Weeping)
Sefer haDema'ot (The Book of Tears)
Sefer haMinhagim (Book of Customs)
Scholars:
Menashe Ben Israel
Abraham ben Isaac
Saadia Gaon
Yosef Solovetchik (The Rav)
Simcha Bunim Pesicha
Sy Agnon
Nahmanides
Hayim Judah Ehrenreich
Aaron of Lunel (Aaron ben Meshulam Ben Yaakov)
Isaiah of Train
Zedakiah the Physician
Meir Ben Baruch of Rothenberg
Eliezer of Worms
Moses of Coucy
Isaac ben Ghiyyat
Eliezer Ben Yohel haLevi
Ephraim Margolioth
Ezekiel Katzenellenbogen
David deSola Pool
Abraham Horowitz
David Ben Joseph Abudarham
Isaac ben Sheshet Perfect
Bahya Ben Asher of Saragossa
Hai Gaon
Nahum ha'Pakuli
Isaac ben Jacob Alfasi
Rabbi Eleazar ben Arakh
Hayyim Yosef David Azulai
Nissim Ben Jacob
Isaac Aboab
Aaron Roth
Solomon Buber
(Zeev Zabotinsky)
(Getzel Selikovitch)
Judah the Pious
Menachem Azariah of Fano
Judah Loew Ben Bezalel
Ezekiel Landau
Abraham of Minsk (Abraham ben Judah Leib Maskileison)
Menachem haMeiri
Solomon ben Abraham Adret
Aaron Berachiah Ben Moses of Modena
Bahya Ben Asher of Saragossa
Yechiel Michel Epstein
Moses Isserles (The Rema)
Adolf Jellinek
Benjamin Zev ben Mattathias
Meir Ben Isaac Katzenellenbogen
Israel Isserlein
Joseph Garçon (Portuguese exile of Castilian origin)
Moses Mintz (German Talmudist)
Jacob Moellin (Maharil)
Mordecai ben Abraham Jaffe
Abraham Gombiner (Mogen Avraham)
Moses Sofer (Chatam Sofer)
Zvi Hirsch Chajes
Akiva Eger
Beer Oppenheim
Jacob Ettlinger
David ben Zimra (Radbaz)
Jacob Ben Asher (Ba'al ha Turim)
Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet
Eliezer Ben Nathan
Solomon ben Sampson of Worms
Isaac ben Samuel of Dampierre
Isaac of Corbeil
Rabbi Abba bar Zabda
David ben Hayyim haCohen
Meshullam Finkelstein of Warsaw
Joseph Hahn Nordlingen
Sherira Gaon
Nathan Ben Jehiel
Hananel Ben Hushiel
Joseph haCohen
Simon Bernfeld
Meir Segal (Meir Ben Baruch haLevi of Fulda)
Isaac of Tyrnau
Yosef Ben Mattathias Reeves
Isaiah Astruc
April 23, 2019
It took me a long time to finish this book, but I did finish it, which kind of amazes me because I made several attempts to read it over a period of about 10 years, and I could never get past the first 50 or so pages. The subject matter is academic and scholarly, and its entire 585 pages are focused on one prayer in the Jewish liturgy. I suppose it's hard to make something lively out of that.
Still, when I was able to stick with the book past my initial difficulty, it did become more interesting. Leon Wieseltier mixes his investigations into the history of the kaddish -- the prayer that observant Jews say every day for a year after a parent dies -- with personal musings about the emotional connection he develops with this prayer, and with his obligation as a son to say kaddish for his father. The book is in the form of a journal that he kept during that year, specifically because his decision to assume this responsibility, and to take it seriously and carry it out conscientiously and with awareness, came after many years of not attending synagogue at all.
Still, when I was able to stick with the book past my initial difficulty, it did become more interesting. Leon Wieseltier mixes his investigations into the history of the kaddish -- the prayer that observant Jews say every day for a year after a parent dies -- with personal musings about the emotional connection he develops with this prayer, and with his obligation as a son to say kaddish for his father. The book is in the form of a journal that he kept during that year, specifically because his decision to assume this responsibility, and to take it seriously and carry it out conscientiously and with awareness, came after many years of not attending synagogue at all.
June 1, 2025
"There are circumstances that must shatter you; and if you are not shattered, then you have not understood your circumstances. In such circumstances, it is a failure for your heart not to break... Where there was old life, let there be new life. Do not persevere. Dignify the shock."
April 9, 2017
Fragmentul meu preferat (pentru ca explica o parte importanta, poate cea mai importanta, a dragostei mele pentru iudaism): "Kadisul pare a fi jucat un rol in dezvoltarea a ceea ce este probabil trasatura definitorie a iudaismului in exil: carisma stiintei de carte. Atunci cand evreii din Mainz faceau o diferenta intre carturari si alti membri ai comunitatii [in sensul ca pentru carturari poti spune kadisul chiar si in zi de sarbatoare, cand e interzis sa jelesti, n.n.] sau atunci cand traduceau aceasta diferenta intr-unul dintre protocoalele de doliu, ei nu defineau o elita sociala, ci o esenta spirituala. Proclamau suprematia spiritului" (p. 91, editia 2001, Polirom, Colectia "A Treia Europa").
*
"Pentru mine sulul a incetat sa mai para un loc strain. Asta ma ingrijoreaza. Intr-un loc strain solitudinea este posibila. Sociabilitatea ameninta spiritualitatea. Am ajuns acum sa-mi cunosc tovarasii petitionari. Nu-mi mai sunt straini, imi devin prieteni. Cum te rogi alaturi de prieteni? Rugaciunea e o zvacnire a individuatiei - pentru mine cel putin. Si totusi, existenta congregatiei este una dintre conditiile pentru a-mi spune kadisul".
*
"In primii ani, inaintea cruciadelor, kadisul jelitorului nu exista. In anii care au urmat cruciadelor, isi face aparitia si kadisul. Nu poate fi o simpla coincidenta. Cruciadele au reprezentat prima incercare majora de exterminare a intregii evreimi din europa. N-a reusit, dar a lasat mult, multi jelitori in urma".
*
"Intrebarea presanta nu este daca sufletul supravietuieste mortii trupului. Intrebarea presanta este daca sufletul supravietuieste vietii trupului".
*
Una dintre cele mai de temut eventualitati din existenta omului a pus stapanire pe mine, si eu ce fac ? Ma cufund în carti ! Imi dau seama ca e ceva bizar. Dar e si tipic evreiesc. Oricum, este ceea ce stiu eu sa fac".
*
"Peste cateva ore imi trece fulgerator prin cap ca ardoarea cu care am sustinut cauza adoptiei este un alt mod al meu de a realiza ceea ce-mi doresc sa realizez prin studierea kadisului, adica, sa diminuez prestigiul singelui, sã slabesc rolul ereditatii in articularea identitatii".
*
"Intr-adevar, istoricii vor consemna ca in America sfirsitului de secol douazeci scientismul cunoaste o reinviere, pentru ca americanii au devenit atit de nesiguri pe ei insisi, incit
au pretins ca descrierea identitatii lor sa posede certitudinea stiintei sau certitudinea religiei. Le-ar placea sa fie absolviti de responsabilitate prin inevitabilitate".
*
"Vrei sa rãmai copil ? Atunci petrece-ti viata intr-un razboi continuu cu unul dintre parinti".
*
"Faptul ca ai fost vizitat de rau nu te face neaparat bun. Nu poti scapa niciodata de propria ta valoare. Cu multi ani in urma am fost izbit de absenta notabila a circumstantelor atenuante, data de istorie, din literatura moralista a evreilor. In ea nu apar evident, cateodata nu apar deloc, imprejurarile cumplite in care s-au aflat atat de multi scriitori sau atatea comunitati evreiesti. Acestea nu determina opiniile despre modul cum trebuie traita viata. Evreii n-au avut o atitudine laxa fata de propriile standarde numai pe motivul ca lumea i-a tratat nedrept. Istoria le-a oferit un alibi -ei l-au refuzat".
*
"Pentru mine sulul a incetat sa mai para un loc strain. Asta ma ingrijoreaza. Intr-un loc strain solitudinea este posibila. Sociabilitatea ameninta spiritualitatea. Am ajuns acum sa-mi cunosc tovarasii petitionari. Nu-mi mai sunt straini, imi devin prieteni. Cum te rogi alaturi de prieteni? Rugaciunea e o zvacnire a individuatiei - pentru mine cel putin. Si totusi, existenta congregatiei este una dintre conditiile pentru a-mi spune kadisul".
*
"In primii ani, inaintea cruciadelor, kadisul jelitorului nu exista. In anii care au urmat cruciadelor, isi face aparitia si kadisul. Nu poate fi o simpla coincidenta. Cruciadele au reprezentat prima incercare majora de exterminare a intregii evreimi din europa. N-a reusit, dar a lasat mult, multi jelitori in urma".
*
"Intrebarea presanta nu este daca sufletul supravietuieste mortii trupului. Intrebarea presanta este daca sufletul supravietuieste vietii trupului".
*
Una dintre cele mai de temut eventualitati din existenta omului a pus stapanire pe mine, si eu ce fac ? Ma cufund în carti ! Imi dau seama ca e ceva bizar. Dar e si tipic evreiesc. Oricum, este ceea ce stiu eu sa fac".
*
"Peste cateva ore imi trece fulgerator prin cap ca ardoarea cu care am sustinut cauza adoptiei este un alt mod al meu de a realiza ceea ce-mi doresc sa realizez prin studierea kadisului, adica, sa diminuez prestigiul singelui, sã slabesc rolul ereditatii in articularea identitatii".
*
"Intr-adevar, istoricii vor consemna ca in America sfirsitului de secol douazeci scientismul cunoaste o reinviere, pentru ca americanii au devenit atit de nesiguri pe ei insisi, incit
au pretins ca descrierea identitatii lor sa posede certitudinea stiintei sau certitudinea religiei. Le-ar placea sa fie absolviti de responsabilitate prin inevitabilitate".
*
"Vrei sa rãmai copil ? Atunci petrece-ti viata intr-un razboi continuu cu unul dintre parinti".
*
"Faptul ca ai fost vizitat de rau nu te face neaparat bun. Nu poti scapa niciodata de propria ta valoare. Cu multi ani in urma am fost izbit de absenta notabila a circumstantelor atenuante, data de istorie, din literatura moralista a evreilor. In ea nu apar evident, cateodata nu apar deloc, imprejurarile cumplite in care s-au aflat atat de multi scriitori sau atatea comunitati evreiesti. Acestea nu determina opiniile despre modul cum trebuie traita viata. Evreii n-au avut o atitudine laxa fata de propriile standarde numai pe motivul ca lumea i-a tratat nedrept. Istoria le-a oferit un alibi -ei l-au refuzat".
December 6, 2022
I've said it before and I'll say it again - if you could be a Talmudic scholar without any faculty with Hebrew or belief in God, I'd sign up for a lifetime of it tomorrow. It's everything I love: close reading, numerology, pedantry, learning by questioning, translation and retranslation, analysis, good faith argumentation (word play intended), history... This book goes even further, centering on death and grief, a personally endlessly fascinating topic. So I had to pick it up, even as a gentile with living parents, as it represents the perfect gooey center of the Venn diagram of Shit I Am Interested In. I meant to use it as a stopgap to fill a week until my copy of Infinite Jest arrived, fully intending to only skim portions and put the book down unfinished (I need another dense 600-page endeavor like a hole in the head); I had other, more expected, more appropriate things to read. But I kept getting pulled back in, equally by the beauty of the prose as by Wieseltier's own stubborn dedication to the project of the kaddish. In the way that a year of daily prayer can illuminate truths of the soul, continuing to pick this book back up, even on page 350, 400, 500, kept satisfying some itch within me. Through the repetition, the inconvenience, the difficulty and even boredom of some of the deep scriptural references, some soreness was being soothed. I wanted to see this book through, though it wasn't on my To Read list, and I picked it up at random, in the wrong season, with too little time and too little space in my backpack. A long, winding, introspective, subjective, flawed, pedantic, raw journey through a very particular experience of a universal grief. It contained many sparkling, devastating passages and ended beautifully, and I'm delighted it found me.
July 12, 2015
This book is a (seemingly not heavily edited) journal of the author's thoughts over the year he said Kaddish for his father, following the widespread custom of saying this prayer for nearly a year after a parent's death. He discusses lots of rabbinic literature about various issues related to the kaddish prayer, as well as bits of autobiography and epigrams between the more serious discussions. Undoubtedly, this book is a bit longer than it should be, but I liked it more by the end than I did for the first couple of hundred pages; I feel like the last third of the book is especially substantive.
I learned a lot about the history of the prayer; during the Middle Ages it somehow evolved into a regular prayer led by mourners, and as late as the 15th century it wasn't universally said every day (as is the case today).
On the less substantive side, there were a few lines I really liked: my favorite being a sermon a month before Rosh Hashanah: "the rabbi elected to preach about definitions of ownership as they are broached by the case of a Jew who lent his ox to a non-Jew for the Sabbath. Not a word about sin or atonment. Just torts, sweet torts." Another example: "The more you cherish, the more you work."
I learned a lot about the history of the prayer; during the Middle Ages it somehow evolved into a regular prayer led by mourners, and as late as the 15th century it wasn't universally said every day (as is the case today).
On the less substantive side, there were a few lines I really liked: my favorite being a sermon a month before Rosh Hashanah: "the rabbi elected to preach about definitions of ownership as they are broached by the case of a Jew who lent his ox to a non-Jew for the Sabbath. Not a word about sin or atonment. Just torts, sweet torts." Another example: "The more you cherish, the more you work."
April 14, 2025
It took me a while but I finished my last book about Kaddish. This is a very long, rambling book on the history of Kaddish (based on many sources) and the authors personal journey. Truthfully the parts I understood I liked. I’ve met only two types of readers of this book - many who said I only got 50 pages in and a few who thought it was terrific. I read it each day during parts of the daily prayer service I am attending since my dad’s death 6 weeks ago. I learned a bit, found meaning in parts and found things to reflect on. It was the right book for the right time.
April 19, 2015
Not quite what I was expecting. It's a personal as well a halachic (related to Jewish law) diary of the author's year of mourning for his father. (Actually thirteen months because it was a leap year.) He explores the origins and meaning of the "Mourner's Kaddish," providing a glimpse into several centuries of Jewish thought and debate.
June 29, 2016
This is a good, honest book about faith. I haven't read many things I could describe that way. Don't read it if you are in mourning but do read it if you have god on your mind.
October 6, 2011
Fantastic, nourishing scholarship. Moments of humor. A study of mourning in practice, also a study of living, carrying on. Study as a method of living. Wish I had read this book years ago.
March 30, 2021
Read it over and over again, supports me in times of loss. Excellent written with all the details of the history of kaddisj and mourning about the dead.
January 29, 2023
A love letter to rabbinics.
January 5, 2021
Une mine encyclopédique alliée à un journal personnel
(lu en français en 2011)
Leon Wieseltier est un juif Américain cultivé, talentueux auteur, avec de solides bases en judaïsme mais non pratiquant. La mort de son père suscite chez lui la nécessité de réciter 3 fois par jour, pendant un an, le Kaddish, la prière des endeuillés. Confronté à cette prière qui ne concerne aucun mot sur les morts ou le deuil, il en vient à se documenter sur les origines du kaddish (pourquoi est-ce le même texte qui sert aussi au kaddish de-rabbanam, etc? comment la liturgie l'a-t-elle progressivement inséré ds son corpus ? quelles interprétations mythiques lui a-t-on prêté au moyen-âge ?...) tout en prenant progressivement conscience du travail de deuil associé à la répétition quotidienne. Son journal est une mise de savoir (sans doute un peu costaude pour qui n'a pas l'habitude de ce genre de livres, mais accessible avec un peu de persévérance) pour qui s intéresse au kaddish, tout en étant d une profonde humanité personnelle. Adoré, acheté, offert, recommandé avec tjs autant d'enthousiasme !
(lu en français en 2011)
Leon Wieseltier est un juif Américain cultivé, talentueux auteur, avec de solides bases en judaïsme mais non pratiquant. La mort de son père suscite chez lui la nécessité de réciter 3 fois par jour, pendant un an, le Kaddish, la prière des endeuillés. Confronté à cette prière qui ne concerne aucun mot sur les morts ou le deuil, il en vient à se documenter sur les origines du kaddish (pourquoi est-ce le même texte qui sert aussi au kaddish de-rabbanam, etc? comment la liturgie l'a-t-elle progressivement inséré ds son corpus ? quelles interprétations mythiques lui a-t-on prêté au moyen-âge ?...) tout en prenant progressivement conscience du travail de deuil associé à la répétition quotidienne. Son journal est une mise de savoir (sans doute un peu costaude pour qui n'a pas l'habitude de ce genre de livres, mais accessible avec un peu de persévérance) pour qui s intéresse au kaddish, tout en étant d une profonde humanité personnelle. Adoré, acheté, offert, recommandé avec tjs autant d'enthousiasme !
March 30, 2023
This wasn't what I expected. Following his father's death, the author observed the Jewish tradition of mourning that involves going the shul three times a day to recite the Kaddish, a prayer that honors the deceased, for 11 months less a day. The book is more or less a lightly edited version of a journal he kept for that year. I was expecting a memoir. What I got was a scholar's deep dive into the history of the prayer, which was fascinating in its own way. Consulting texts going back to the 1st century AD, he finds the origin of the prayer and of the tradition of saying it for the dead. I could only stay with if for about the first third of the book, at which point the minutiae become too much for me to keep track of. All in all, it gave me an appreciation for the written history surrounding Jewish customs, including disagreements and gradual transformations. I would have liked to learn more about the author's experience of mourning and how the ritual of the Kaddish affected him.
July 27, 2025
Very compelling, if tedious. I think I wish it was organized differently where the sources were somehow indexed and ordered, but I think that would miss the point of his journey. His respect for tradition and his ability to read original sources for texts helps illuminate the rich tradition of rabbinic responsa during the middle ages, while also revealing the repeated tragedies of Jewish communities of Europe throughout time. It reads a little bit like an unedited journal of thoughts related to mourning interspersed with long passages of sometimes overlapping, sometimes conflicting Jewish laws and customs of mourning from across time and place, going back to the Talmud. Impressive writing and I am glad that I made it to the end.
January 10, 2018
I started reading this as an academic exercise- researching Jewish mourning practices. In the 18 months I've spent with it (on and off- I wish I knew how many times I've checked out the ebook from my library) it became much less academic. The book, however, is quite academic. A mix of personal journal following the death of the author's father & his research notes, it veers into the arcane and philosophical frequently. It's not easy going, intellectual or at times emotionally. (That could be my experience talking. Tomorrow is the first anniversary of my grandmother's death, so there's a special poignancy.)
September 26, 2019
This tender telling of a non-observant son’s experience of praying the Kaddish three times daily for 11 months after the death of his father is lovely. I suspect a re-read might help me, as, being a Protestant minister, I have only surface knowledge of the nuances of the tradition. I “read” this on Audible, and feel that the performer was very well chosen.
December 5, 2021
Full of insights about the tension between the individual and society. He tries to articulate his connection to 'The Tradition' and it strikes a chord. Good for everyone who can't stop loving the tradition they dislike.
Read
August 26, 2023abridged / m-1000
September 7, 2022
Una impresionante labor. Sufre de su espontaneidad, porque se lee como un diario, pero tiene información relativa a una gran investigación bibliográfica. No se si haberlo organizado más como un libro académico le hubiera restado o sumado. Si se dificulta leerlo a ratos.
Se aprende mucho de cómo es que los escritos rabínicos han ido formando la tradición judía, con todo lo que eso implica desde el punto de vista religioso y místico. Por otra parte, aunque no es el tema central, es doloroso ver como surge una tradición tan arraigada del martirio y la persecución.
Se aprende mucho de cómo es que los escritos rabínicos han ido formando la tradición judía, con todo lo que eso implica desde el punto de vista religioso y místico. Por otra parte, aunque no es el tema central, es doloroso ver como surge una tradición tan arraigada del martirio y la persecución.
March 25, 2021
Excellent book, probably a bit too long
This book alternates between mind-numbing descriptions of the disputes of ancient Rabbis and beautiful, pithy, aphoristic expressions of truth that will stun you and move you.
It took me a long time to read because I found myself marking so many of these profound passages. Then I would get stuck in a long discourse/discussion of the permitted ways of wrapping one’s head (or not) and the reason to do so (or not) in mourning in medieval Judaism and wonder what I was doing. I think some of that was needed, but probably not at the length that was included.
A book I will have to revisit because of how much profundity is there, but only the parts I marked!
This book alternates between mind-numbing descriptions of the disputes of ancient Rabbis and beautiful, pithy, aphoristic expressions of truth that will stun you and move you.
It took me a long time to read because I found myself marking so many of these profound passages. Then I would get stuck in a long discourse/discussion of the permitted ways of wrapping one’s head (or not) and the reason to do so (or not) in mourning in medieval Judaism and wonder what I was doing. I think some of that was needed, but probably not at the length that was included.
A book I will have to revisit because of how much profundity is there, but only the parts I marked!
February 4, 2017
A Jewish man sets out to fulfill his traditional duty to say the Kaddish prayer three times daily for his father for an entire year. At the same time, he also decides to study the history of the Kaddish and to write about this entire experience, and everything he learns, over the course of the year. What results, is an extraordinary document of faith, tradition, history, culture, and personal introspection, sprinkled here and there with humor.
August 8, 2008
I wanted to like this book more. And it's not for the author's integrity, but it was truly complicated and extremely dense. I picked it up shortly after my own dad died, seeing it at Ollson's just as it came out. Perhaps another try is warranted and perhaps, too, I am in a different state of mind now for appreciating it theme.
November 11, 2010
I love this book. It's a dense and incredibly powerful story of one man's struggle to deal with his father's death and to honor his father by following a ritual that is powerful in it's practice. His exploration of the kaddish ritual provides him a venue to understand the power of the ritual throughout Jewish history and in his own life.
November 11, 2017
I ought this book years before reading it, knowing I ought to, wanting the knowledge inside, and being half afraid of it because of the dire comments people made about its being "heavy," and "researchy." I unearthed it during my year of mourning and found it the best solace after the healing power of the minyan itself.
July 11, 2009
First Edition
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