Product Description

The Kaddish is considered by millions of Jews to be a special prayer one recites for the dead. It isn't. This book contains much new information as it traces the evolution of the Kaddish.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #457002 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

Explanation of the Journey of Kaddish!
I am 9.5 months into saying Kaddish for my son, Sgt. First Class, Or Oved-Weiss, of Sayeret Duvdevan. He died in an improbably foolish accident in Thailand after finishing his army service.

I started by reading a transliteration of Kaddish, then started saying it alone daily, then several times alone daily. I then tried it in Shul during Shakrit in the presence of a Minyan and felt it work its healing wonders as the other worshipers responded to my prayer.

I never really contemplated the prayer's origins or the depth of its meanings beyond the personal infusion of strength I received from it. Then I read Leon Charney's wonderful book, Kaddish. It is a clear and frankly brilliant examination of who we are as Jews and how this prayer has had and has the ability to sustain us and keep us as `am kshay oreff' (a stiff necked people). How we can face any and all tragedies and stare them down with a simple and elegant affirmation of our Faith.

This book tied all of my feelings together. I recommend it as highly as possible as it is important on every level.

Mark Weiss/New York City

The Da Vinci Code meets the Torah!
The Da Vinci Code meets the Torah!

Cheers to Charney and Mayzlish for weaving together such a readable spiritual and historical journey. Once I picked the book up, I could not put it down. I found myself learning so much from the Crusades to the Bible to the plight of Judaism in the Middle Ages up until the Holocaust. And it's all poetically woven together around this one prayer and unraveling the mystery around its creation and development- the Kaddish; a prayer that apparently unifies Jewish people all around the world- beautiful in its utter simplicity and reverence to God!

I should note from the outset that I am not Jewish (at least not practicing). My father was Jewish and my mother Jamaican, but my father never practiced Judaism nor did I growing up. Reading this book therefore became a personal joy because it unlocked so much about myself that I had no idea even existed. Although it is clear from this text that many Jewish people too are unfamiliar with this history. Charney and Mayzlish run around the world- from America to Europe to Israel- speaking with primary sources to unravel a truth, until now unknown. And more importantly, this book is just great reading no matter what your background- Jewish, Christian, Muslim or academic!

I would have never known. Can't wait for the movie!!

The Mystery of Kaddish - Its profound influence of Judaism
This book is a landmark in the study of Jewish history and the sociology of Halacha (Jewish law). What is the mystery of the Kaddish all about? Where was the Mourner's Kaddish born? Why has it attracted such great attention? The Mourner's Kaddish is written in the Aramaic and is recited at the burial ceremony and from then on, for 11 months, a few times during each of the daily prayers. A word concerning the Kaddish is in order.

As the authors tell us, the origin of the Aramaic text is in the Talmud. In its first part, the Kaddish invites the congregation to assert the sanctification of God's name in the world. Its second part, however, relegates the sanctified name to the domain of the transcendent - beyond all blessings and consolations. The prayer addresses human reality, the need to glorify the Lord, yet it seals all hope for meaningful understanding of and commonsense consolation for the human lot. As such, this prayer demands of every ordinary Jew to adhere to a high church of believers who would not concretize the attributes of the Lord, and thus accept birth and death in metaphysical equanimity - not to be confused moral neutrality. This is a great lesson.

One of the most embarrassing situations in Jewish secular life is the attending of a funeral in Israel, becoming a living witness to the struggle of the mourner with the Aramaic text. Poetry is turned into a dyslexic experience. Most secular Jews fail to pronounce, let alone understand the sublime message the text in conveying. The authors tell us this text is a sort of internal letter transmitted within the Jewish community, endorsed for all mourners one thousand years ago, handed over from generation to generation since the time of the Crusaders.

Till that time of the Crusaders, the Kaddish had been recited following the death of distinguished scholars only. The massacres of Jews by the Crusaders and, later on, the extensive losses during the black plague, forced the Rabbis to address the sorrow and frustration of the ordinary person. They borrowed on Christian burial rituals, tells the book, adapted a traditional and highly meaningful Talmudic text, thus aiming to sustain a Jewish community in the face of disaster. The descendents of the Holocaust generation know all-too-well the destructive impact the Eclipse of God can have on traditional Jewish life.

According to the authors, the introduction of the Mourner's Kaddish into Jewish tradition was a democratic move taken by rabbinical authority. It was a concession to popular psychology. For, as you may know, Jewish festivities waive mourning rituals, except the obligation to recite the Kaddish! This was the decree of the school of Rashi in the 12th century, one endorsed by all Jewish legal codes. How is it, then, that a popular ritual, introduced in the 12th century in Western Europe, was endorsed over a short period of time by the whole of the Jewish world? Here is the book's innovation within the field of the sociology of Jewish law.

One of the greatest commentators on the Talmud, who lived in Germany in the 14th century, was Rabbi Asher, the Rosh. His wife and son were murdered and with them a greater part of their community. Chronicles tell us that the Rosh prescribed that the members of the community recite the Mourner's Kaddish. Immediately thereafter the Rosh was invited to join the Rashba, head of the Spanish community in Toledo, upon whose death some years later, the leadership was transferred to the German scholar. East and West united at once within the four volumes of Jewish law, composed by the Rosh's son, Rabi Jacob, known as the Tur. In the volume relating to lifestyle regulations, he described the different traditions in Germany and France concerning the reciting of the Kaddish and accepted his father's and Rashi's tradition over any other existing ones. One hundred and fifty years later, this view was incorporated into Karo's, "Set Table", the final word on Jewish law compiled in Palestine. A few decades later, Rabbi Moses Iserlish of Krakow, endorsed it too in his commentary on the "Set Table". This, then, is how a popular tradition was universally codified into law for the whole of the Jewish world.

The authors' historical research is beautifully complemented by a voyage among the various Jewish communities in Israel as well as Europe. This is an endearing document, indeed, portraying the life and history of the different tribes constituting the Jewish people - Hasidic, Sephardic, Ultra-Nationalists, and others in our post-Holocaust era.

Should a Jew recite the Mourner's Kaddish? Each one must answer for oneself. For the authors, however, it is all about that which "allows religion to survive and flourish", about "the community who commitment is to the sublime", "over and above any literal observance". These words carry the best of all religions.