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(Unedited) Version of My Talk on the Kaddish. It Contains

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(Unedited) Version of My Talk on the Kaddish. It Contains Note: Below is the original (unedited) version of my talk on the Kaddish. It contains an expanded discussion of the Bernstein Kaddish Symphony which edited out in my presentation due to time limits. I am titling this discussion: KADDISH – a personal journey My first exposure to the Kaddish prayer was as a 13 year old performing Leonard Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony (number 3) with the Columbus Boychoir in Boston and then in New York. A recording of this still exists and, of course my family has several copies. And with a magnifying glass and a lot of imagination, one can barely make me out in the picture on the back cover of the LP. (If anybody wants to hear this work, I have my LP and it is still available on eBay.) The Kaddish Symphony was noteworthy to me for many reasons. Firstly, at my young age, I was amazed that this symphony in its text challenges God with rather strong language. The symphony features a narrator (played by Bernstein’s wife Felecia Montealegre) and chorus narrating the holy prayer. The narrator humanizes and challenges God with text written by Bernstein. She questions and challenges God, even ascribes human emotion to him and she offers to say the Kaddish for him: “oh my Father, ancient, hallowed, lonely, disappointed Father. Betrayed, rejected ruler of the universe. I will say this final Kaddish for you.” The crisis of faith in this piece comes in the 2nd movement “Din Torah” meaning judgment. But instead of God judging us, Bernstein turns the tables and it is the human who questions and judges god. Are you listening, Father? You know who I am: Your image; that stubborn reflection of You That Man has shattered, extinguished, banished. And now he runs free – free to play With his new-found fire, avid for death, Voluptuous, complete and final death. Lord God of Hosts, I call you to account! You let this happen, Lord of Hosts! You with your manna, Your pillar of fire! You ask for faith, where is Your own? Why have You taken away Your rainbow, That pretty bow You tied round Your finger To remind You never to forget Your promise? “For lo, I do set my bow in the cloud… And I will look upon it, that I May remember my everlasting covenant…” Your covenant! Your bargain with Man! Tin God! Your bargain is tin! 1 It crumbles in my hand! And where is faith now – Yours or mine? At this point the orchestra is whipped into a frenzy; and at the very climax the piece goes to the final movement – which is a fast-tempo dream sequence. God has fallen asleep and the narrator paints a dream. God is no longer in control and the narrator has full power to bring God on this journey. This is Your kingdom of Heaven, Father, Just as You planned it. Every immortal cliché intact. Lambs frisk. Wheat ripples Sunbeams dance. Something is wrong. The light: flat. The air: sterile. Do You know what is wrong? There is nothing to dream. Nowhere to go. Nothing to know. Now behold my Kingdom of Earth! Real-life marvels! Genuine wonders! Dazzling miracles!... Look, a Burning Bush Look, a Fiery Wheel! A Ram! A Rock! Shall I smite it? There! It gushes! It gushes! And I did it I am creating this dream! Now will you believe? The narrator next places a rainbow in the sky, in parallel to the story of Noah when God Placed a rainbow in the sky to institute a new covenant with man. In loud triumph and anger, the speaker declares: Look at it Father: Believe! Believe! Look at my rainbow and say after me: Magnified and sanctified Be the great name of man! At this point the orchestra goes wild, building to an amazing climax. The boychoir finally wakes up and sings in unison very loudly Yitgadal v’yit’kdash sh’me raba. Amen. (I may add parenthetically, that this is the lot of boychoirs or children choirs in symphonic works. We sit around for a very long time before we get to do anything). The pace of the music slows down as the narrator has finished her dream. The narrator, satisfied that God has seen His errors, beams: 2 Good morning, Father. We can still be immortal, You and I, bound by our rainbow. That is our covenant, and to honor it Is our honor… not quite the covenant We bargained for, so long ago. The narration ends with a commitment from both sides, God and Human to “Suffer and recreate each other.” Much of the above commentary and quotes from the work came from Wikipedia as well as my recollections of the piece. Bernstein later extensively rewrote the piece, with new commentary by Samuel Pisar about his personal experiences and how his family suffered and perished in the Holocaust. I remember as a young 13 year old the effect that this piece had on me. I was aghast at how the narration seemed blasphemous to my young ears. But it did tell a story of the narrator’s anger and eventual reconciliation with God. I was also surprised at the contemporary reviews of the piece. A commentary by Jack Gottlieb, Bernstein’s assistant and writer of the LP liner notes, talking about the world premier in Israel, indicated: The Speaker’s text of the Symphony contains such blasphemies that the zealots were expected to rise in violent protest. On the contrary, the “blasphemies” were recognized as indigenous to Jewish thought by such an eminent author as Max Brod. [But it was] Certain American writers [who] took umbrage at these same irreverences. So now we fast forward to the beginning of my period of discovery to Fall of the year 2000. Christine and I have been hired at Rodfei Zedek to sing with the High Holy Day choir. Indeed I recall that the first piece that we rehearsed was one of the many versions of the Kaddish that appear in these services. I almost remembered the words from 25 years ago. But I was instantly confused: the prayer appeared many times throughout the service, and there were several versions. But hey, this was a gig, and we are paid to sing whatever is put in front of us. No time for reflection. (and as I learned, during the service there was no time to juggle the Mahzor and our big binder of music). Now again fast forward a few years. Christine and I have joined the Congregation and attended a series of study classes on the Siddur before we actually started coming to Saturday services. The Kaddish is showing up more and more in my consciousness. So when Shirley put out a call for speakers at these services, I was interested in pursuing the Kaddish: 3 Why are there so many versions of the Kaddish? Why are some versions (like the Hatzi Kaddish) spoken or chanted at some portions of the service while other versions are used in other portions? Why is there a mourner’s Kaddish when, indeed, there is no references to mourning or the dead? These were all questions that whirled around in my mind as I sat down to do my study. What is the meaning of the Kaddish? Daniel Landes writes More than a mere completion, however, Kaddish is like a postscript to love letters: telling and powerful; no mere afterthought. No wonder, both in form and language, that Kaddish is uniquely tailored for different points of the service. The language of Kaddish – not Hebrew but Aramaic – is also striking. Rashi’s explanation is that it is formulated in a language that even angels do not speak and so belongs exclusively to the Jewish people as its own unique access to God. Alternatively, as the vernacular of its time, the Aramaic of Kaddish provided direct access to this important prayer’s meaning. The authority of Kaddish is demonstrated in several ways 1. Intensity: The response of Y’hei sh’mei rabba m’varakh l’olam ul’al’mei al’maya” is to be given in a full voice and , therefore , with complete concentration 2. Demand: If worshipers hear Kaddish being said, they are to respond almost without consideration to where they are personally in their own prayers. Indeed, responding to Kaddish is more important than the response to Modim (the eighteenth blessing of the Amidah), and even to K’dushah itself. One even interrupts the recital of a blessing surrounding the Sh’ma to respond to Kaddish At the core of the power of this unusual prayer is its response. The Rabbis went so far as to promise that for those who respond to Kaddish with full power, “any decrees against them will be torn up and the gates of the Garden of Eden opened.” So extravagant a claim invites casual dismissal as a piece of superstition or absurd magic. But it also underscores how important the Rabbis thought Kaddish response to be. The halakhic understanding of Kaddish is really quite rational and spiritual. The question is, what is Kaddish at its core? The core of Sh’ma is the acceptance of God’s unity. The Amidah is our heart’s service of God in which we communicate both mundane and spiritual requests. Kaddish is K’dushat Hashem, sanctifying God’s name. Kaddish is the oral fulfillment of the obligation to publicize the fact that God is truly kadosh, “holy” – that is, utterly separate and transcendent. And in declaiming God’s “beyondness” as we stand within the holy community, we ourselves enter God’s transcendent realm.
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