While the Kaddish is one of the most central parts of our liturgy, it also exposes two red flags that cannot be ignored. When I was a teenager, someone, I can't even remember who, said to me: "Judaism in America was destroyed by the first rabbi...
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When discussing issues related to women, we must be aware that we are treading on two different issues. One, like all halachic issues, is sources; Bible, Talmud, etc. Some would add custom to this list. I don't. The other is the fact that...
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When Kaddish was only the demarcation between the various parts of the service, there were initially seven Kaddishes in the liturgy; three in the morning service, and two each in the afternoon and evening service, for a total of seven. This was...
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As I wrote in part 1, the "half Kaddish" is the "real" kaddish. Over time, various other forms of the Kaddish have developed, consisting mainly of additions to the basic "half Kaddish". These additions are custom only.
One of these is called by...
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As I pointed out in my previous post, the primary function of the Kaddish, is to indicate and separate the end of one segment of the prayer service, from the beginning of another. But why is this necessary? Here, we must turn to the Kabbalah for...
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When former Chief Rabbi Lau, the father of the current Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, visited Pope John Paul II in 1993, he told the Pope that Israel needed help in locating Ron Arad, a member of the Israeli Air Force, who went missing in...
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