Boundless Life - A Study in Kaddish
Dedicated with love to the memory of my dear friend, Rafi Guber, z"l Though often recited in somber tones, with feelings of heaviness and loss, the Mourner's Kaddish ( Kaddish Yatom , lit. "Orphan's Kaddish") does not in fact refer to loss or death, but rather to God - or more specifically, to sanctifying and glorifying God's name in public. Some may look at this declaration as a way to accrue heavenly merit for a deceased loved one. Others may derive comfort from the humbling thought that the ultimate reason behind our immense pain and suffering, the plan which it is all somehow supposed to fit into, is well beyond us, outside the domain of human comprehension. For most of course, there is comfort in simply being acknowledged as a mourner - in being noticed, not being alone. I'd like introduce a new layer of meaning, an alternative line of interpretation - and translation - of Kaddish. We will focus here on one particular line, arguably the cent...