* Translated by Janine Muller Sherr
Some 1,200 families will soon finish saying the Mourner’s Kaddish for their loved ones who were murdered on Simchat Torah (October 7). The custom is to recite the Kaddish prayer three times daily for 11 months and that period ends this week. What is the meaning of the words of this prayer that were recited over and over again this year?
The Kaddish opens with the mourner expressing their desire that the magnificent name of God be glorified and sanctified—“Yitgadal V’Yitkadash Shmei Rabbah!” The words that follow describe a good world that has achieved its tikkun (rectification) and ask that God’s presence in the world be further magnified: “Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored, adored and lauded…”
Why are these words recited by a mourner after his loved one has passed away? Since every human being is created in the image of God, when a person passes away, God’s revelation in the world is diminished somewhat. Something holy is now missing from our world. Therefore we request that the divine light be increased in order to fill that void. And this year that void is almost unfathomable.
As this period of Kaddish comes to a close, one bereaved family asked me to thank the general public on their behalf. Those who were diligent in reciting Kaddish three times daily were assisted by many volunteers in Israel and throughout the world who agreed to pause in the middle of their day to join a minyan. Kaddish is never recited alone; it requires the presence of at least nine other men. Reciting Kaddish in a minyan sends a powerful and comforting message to the mourners: You are not alone.
May we soon see the fulfillment of the closing words of the Kaddish recited by so many brokenhearted people: “He who makes peace in His heights, may He make peace upon us and upon all Israel, and say: Amen.”
