Observations and Reflections on the History and Meanings of the Kaddish - Critical Essay

Judaism, Wntr, 2001 by David Blumenthal

THE KADDISH EVOLVED FROM A SIMPLE LINE OF BIBLICAL praise to a liturgical formula for dividing the liturgy into its parts and for celebrating a study session. It, then, developed into a prayer for the dead and has been, and continues to be, used as such, especially in post-shoah Judaism. From there, it penetrated into non-religious Jewish culture as a political and cultural statement. The Kaddish has, thus, penetrated to all corners of Jewish civilization. Its sounds and its echoes are to be found everywhere as, indeed, God's praise and the respect and love of the dead are found everywhere. My essay traces the development of this prayer, citing sources, and commenting upon them. I begin first with recent political and cultural metamorphoses.

In his excellent book on Rabbi Levi Yitzhaq of Berditchev (1740-1810), Samuel Dresner cites the "Kaddish of Levi Yitzhaq" which mixes vernacular Yiddish and liturgical Aramaic: [1]

Good morning to You, Lord, Master of the universe,

I, Levi Yitzhak, son of Sarah of Berditchev,

I come to You with a Din Torah from Your people Israel.

What do You want of Your people Israel?

What have You demanded of Your people Israel?

For everywhere I look it says, "Say to the Children of Israel."

And every other verse says, "Speak to the Children of Israel."

And over and over, "Command the Children of Israel."

Father, sweet Father in heave,

How many nations are there in the world?

Persians, Babylonians, Edomites.

The Russians, what do they say?

That their Czar is the only ruler.

The Prussians, what do they say?

That their Kaiser is supreme.

And the English, what do they say?

That George the Third is sovereign.

And I, Levi Yitzhak, son of Sarah of Berditchev, say,

"Yisgadal v 'yiskadash shmei raboh-

Magnified and sanctified is Thy Name."

And I, Levi Yitzhak, son of Sarah of Berditchev, say,

"From my stand I will not waver,

And from my place I shall not move

Until there be an end to all this.

Yisgadal v'yiskadash shmei rabok-

Magnified and sanctified is only Thy Name."

Dresner, then, goes on to recount a particularly stirring rendition of the singing of this Kaddish:

The soaring strains of this song of divine dissent sounded far beyond the narrow confines of Berditchev, echoing in the hearts of Jews scattered throughout poverty-stricken, persecution-ridden communities in Eastern Europe and, in time, even in far-off America and Israel.... Nor was the mysterious power of this song understood only by the jews... Paul Robeson, for example, the noted black singer, sang it following World War II at the great rallies for European Jewry and for the State of Israel during the early years of the young state's struggle for independence and subsistence.

Having set the scene, Dresner elaborates some of the political ramifications in which this prayer has been entangled:

Robeson sang it in 1958 in Moscow at a special concert The hall was filled to overflowing with military and government officials, persons of influence and culture. Among those present were also a large number of Jews. It was well known that Robeson's repertoire contained many Negro folk songs, African freedom songs, and several Jewish songs. Robeson's procedure was to explain the meaning of each song before he sang it. Conscious of the suffering of Russian Jews, he had decided to sing the Berditchever's Kaddish and listed it on his program. Suddenly he received a note from a member of the sponsoring committee which read: "No one in the audience understands Yiddish. It would, therefore, be out of place to sing any Jewish songs this evening."

Robeson was perplexed. Yiddish had been listed in the last Russian census as the mother tongue of thirty-five percent of the jews, who were well represented in the audience. Granting the assumed ignorance of Yiddish, would the African songs that he would sing in the languages of Ghana and the Congo be better understood?

The Soviet context is important:

He began his program in his usual manner, explaining each song before it was sung. First, he introduced a series of songs from the Congo and Ghana, indicating their anti-colonial character, which reflected the new spirit of the rising nationalism there.

Then he boldly announced, "And now I shall sing an anti-imperialist song for you which you may not have heard in some time. It was written more than one hundred and fifty years ago by a Russian as a protest against the Czar. The name of the author is Levi Yitzhak, and he lived in the city of Berditchev.

So it was that he began to sing Rabbi Levi Yitzhak's Kaddish.

When he came to the words:

What do You want of Your people Israel?

What have You demanded of Your people Israel?

For everywhere I look it says, "Say to the Children of Israel."

And every other verse says, "Speak to the Children of Israel."

And over and over, "Command the Children of Israel."

Father, sweet Father in heaven,

How many nations are there in the world?

a tremor passed through the auditorium, scattered sighs and muffled sobs were heard. And when he began to thunder:

And I, Levi Yitzhak, son of Sarah of Berditchev, say,