KADDISH, RE-VALUED by Sheri Lindner

Kaddish is the traditional prayer that is recited in the Jewish religion for someone who has died…

 It is noteworthy that there is no mention of death in this prayer; rather, the words are about the glory of God.  Kaddish is also recited at various points during a prayer service to delineate one part of the service from another.  Thus, it is a kind of “concluding” prayer.  It is also a prayer that one recites when he (traditionally, it is he but in the Judaism that speaks to me, it is also, she) or she concludes a session of study.

There are many ways to absorb and understand the Kaddish prayer.  I have heard it said that we recite it for a person who has died, because life may be considered its own study session, and the dead person can no longer say this prayer to conclude his or her life of study, so we say it for him or her.

What is offered here includes our traditional prayer first, the words of which do not really resonate with me.  I have attempted to re-value this prayer by defining God in a way that would resonate with me.  There is a part of me that feels arrogant to attempt to define this undefined-able  idea; there is another part of me that understands that I join every human being who has ever existed in wrestling with the grandest Idea, the grandest Creation of humanity.

Photography by Naomi 

Kaddish (The traditional prayer)

Reader:   Let God’s name be made great and holy in the world that was created as God willed.  May God complete the holy realm in your own lifetime, in your days, and in the days of all the house of Israel, quickly and soon.  And say: Amen.

Congregation:  May God’s great name be blessed, forever and as long as worlds endure.

Reader:   May it be blessed and praised and glorified, and held in honor, viewed in awe, embellished and revered; and may the blessed name of holiness be hailed, though it be higher than all the blessings, songs, praises, and consolations that we utter in this world.  And say: Amen.

May heaven grant a universal peace, and life for us, and for all Israel.  And say: Amen.

May the one who creates harmony above, make peace for us and for all Israel, and for all who dwell on earth.  And say:  Amen.

~

Kaddish (Re-valued by Sheri Lindner)

We stand before the Idea God

by which we mean

all that holds us spellbound within

the abiding Symmetries of the Universe

Beauty that brings us to our knees

Consciousness too deep for words

the unutterable Known

the mystery of Becoming

Loving that takes our breath away

the stretching forth

of our most Awakened Selves

toward Holiness

This is what we mean by God

the Idea of a thousand thousand facets

ungraspably complex

eluding language

but because our living is bound up

with all this

as much as it is bound up with air

we breathe like air

One Unified Word

to hold for us

All that is beyond holding

but must be held nonetheless

Gratitude compels us

to vow before this Incomprehensible All

and to Each Other

to safeguard

Minds that can imagine

such an Idea

Hearts that can open to

such an Idea

our own precious Humanity

that will forever refuse

to be vanquished by

such an Idea

God

Amen

        --Sheri Lindner

              November 22, 2009

              Published Online in The Ritual Well, July 19, 2010

Sheri Lindner, Ph.D., a former teacher of English, and currently a clinical psychologist, is also a poet and essayist interested in the processes of development and maturation as they are reflected in Biblical stories and children’s literature.  Her writings have appeared in Jewish Currents, The Reconstructionist, Reconstructionism Today, Kerem, Jewish Women's Literary Annual, Poetica, Performance Poets Association Literary Review, Matzoh Ball Soup, Soul-Lit, The Ritual Well, and The New York Times.

~If you are interested in seeing your poetry appear in this blog, or submitting a poem by a woman that has inspired you, please click here for submission guidelines. I greatly look forward to hearing from you!~