Kaddish

This book alternates between mind-numbing descriptions of the disputes of ancient Rabbis and beautiful, pithy, aphoristic expressions of truth that will stun you and move you.It took me a long time to read because I found myself marking so many of these profound passages. Then I would get stuck in a long discourse/discussion of the permitted ways of wrapping one’s head (or not) and the reason to do so (or not) in mourning in medieval Judaism and wonder what I was doing. I think some of that was needed, but probably not at the length that was included.A book I will have to revisit because of how much profundity is there, but only the parts I marked!

I was told to read this book after the recent loss of my wife and my children participating in the kaddish, said for 11 months following the passing of their mother. I was told that this book is truly a compendium of sources on this subject and I would help me greatly. I should note that I am fairly well versed in Jewish and Hebrew/Aramaic sources and these subjects are quite familiar to me. Instead what I found in essence is the musing of the author about his experience, which though I am sorry for the loss of his father, doesn't really interest me. Nor does his journey away from Judaism and his partial connection back with the saying of kaddish. Indeed, the author has done considerable research on this subject, but the lack of footnotes, ore even a bibliography (at least in the paperback edition that I recently received from Amazon) makes it impossible to check his sources and more importantly his translation. Missing are even routine things that one would expect to find such as Bible chapter and verse or Talmud page numbers. Another difficulty is his musing on these sources and what they mean that seem to go on for pages and are often redundant. After to getting around page 100, I finally gave up. I know that this book received a large amount of press when it was first published, but I am not sure why. Even for someone like myself who is versed in this type of literature found it unreadable, someone who does not have this background, I am not sure how they can process this book and what lesson that they would learn. I give two stars for the amount of research involved. Perhaps an updated edition of this book would eliminate the author's story and experiences and reformat and give exact references to the works cited with a detailed bibliography and notes.

This book received a lot of publicity when it came out about 18 years ago. Now, I'm saying kaddish for my father, so I thought it would be a good time to read this book. I haven't finished reading it yet. He's saying kaddish for his father. OK. However, we never hear why their relationship was so fraught. We don't learn if his father faded away in old age or if he was suffering through a long illness. Parts of it are excellent summaries of rabbinic literature discussions about the mourner's kaddish and mourning customs in general. This is what I was looking for; however, it is not as well organized as a textbook, which would have enhanced it. In between these meaty sections are short sentences written to show off his facility with the English language, with solipsisms or tautologies. I will write again when I finish. (And I will look up those words to make sure that's what I mean.) I have the feeling an editor, after a certain point, decided to let the author just go on and on.

This book does not fit any easy classification and needs to be evaluated on its own basis. I have loved it, and found it very thoughful and satisfying, even though I do not belong to the same faith tradition as the author. I cannot read it all at once. It needs to be taken in small doses so that one can savor and muse about the implications of what he is saying. It is more of a devotional book---in a strange way---than a novel or a biography that has a plot. It is more circuitous in its writing, following thoughts until the thinker is satisfied. It is like sucking the marrow out of bones. His ability to use ancient source means that the conversation is not only with this author, but with centuries of thinking about the issues of prayer, grief, human and human/divine relationships. I would recommend that a Kindle owner get a sample. They may discover that they feel the need to read the whole book. That was my experience.

This book was both interesting and intensely moving. Despite the difference in my cultural background, Irish Catholic, and my shallow intellectual understanding of my own faith tradition in contrast to Mr Wieseltier's apparent deep immersion in his, I found this book a deeply resonating answer to the challenge of grieving for a dead father that you have fundamental emotional bonds to. Grief takes a long time, but to express your grief even briefly rapidly degenerates into maudlin sentimentality. Mr Wieseltier's solution of channeling his grief into a traditional Jewish ritual and the investigation of the evolution of that ritual over time seems to find the balance between honoring his father and his grief and achieving enough detachment most of the time to avoid diminishing the dignity of his grief and love for his father by lapsing into inarticulate emotional excess.

I read this book after my mother passed away last year at the advice of a friend. It was difficult reading and it took me several weeks to finish, but ultimately it was worthwhile. I would recommend the book only to someone with a solid Jewish educational background who has also suffered the loss of a parent or some other family member and is saying the kaddish prayer daily.

I was given this book when saying kaddish for my mother. I found it insightful, learned and scholarly and not in the least bit indulgent as suggested by other reviewers. Its entirely accessible as one can dip in and out of its pages at will and find interesting and thought provoking material at almost every turn. A touch repetitious yes but then again the ritual of kaddish is itself repetitious but in each recitation perhaps a glimmer of meaning anew. I have been recommending it for the years since and just bought a copy for my bookshelf.

Intense but worthwhile .

If you live long enough, most life cycle events will come your way.That is not to say that they are all welcome or expected.Death is the most certain of those. In this manner the mind is challenged; what is the meaning of these events? Will I experience the same? What have I missed and most important, what is next?In this guide to the Jewish (and others by comparison) mourning ritual, there are answers, and much more. The value of reading this book, the comfort that it provides, the insights that remain with the reader, cannot be overemphasized.