#kaddish — Public Fediverse posts

The ghost, or: The silence

A Sijo

for one year, Kaddish gave my loss
a borrowed ancient voice;
then silence marked the threshold
between mourning and forever;
I withdrew after the last amen
but returned to words as breathing

W3 poetry prompt

For Benji’s W3 prompt this week, he invites us to reflect on the quiet we long for, and what happens when it finally arrives. He asks us to consider the uneasy space after busyness, obligation, noise, or familiar chaos has ended, when freedom may first feel welcome but later reveal loneliness, memory, regret, or unexpected clarity.

Sijo?

A Korean verse form related to haiku and tanka and comprised of three lines of 14-16 syllables each, for a total of 44-46 syllables. Each line contains a pause near the middle, similar to a caesura, though the break need not be metrical. The first half of the line contains six to nine syllables; the second half should contain no fewer than five. Originally intended as songs, sijo can treat romantic, metaphysical, or spiritual themes. Whatever the subject, the first line introduces an idea or story, the second supplies a “turn,” and the third provides closure. Modern sijo are sometimes printed in six lines.

Let’s write poetry together!

When it comes to partnership, some humans can make their lives alone – it’s possible. But creatively, it’s more like painting: you can’t just use the same colours in every painting. It’s just not an option. You can’t take the same photograph every time and live with art forms with no differences.

–Ben Harper (b. 1969)

Would you like to create poetry with me and have a completed poem of yours featured here at the Skeptic’s Kaddish? I am very excited to have launched the ‘Poetry Partners’ initiative and am looking forward to meeting and creating with you… Check it out!

The ghost, or: The silence

A Sijo

for one year, Kaddish gave my loss
a borrowed ancient voice;
then silence marked the threshold
between mourning and forever;
I withdrew after the last amen
but returned to words as breathing

W3 poetry prompt

For Benji’s W3 prompt this week, he invites us to reflect on the quiet we long for, and what happens when it finally arrives. He asks us to consider the uneasy space after busyness, obligation, noise, or familiar chaos has ended, when freedom may first feel welcome but later reveal loneliness, memory, regret, or unexpected clarity.

Sijo?

A Korean verse form related to haiku and tanka and comprised of three lines of 14-16 syllables each, for a total of 44-46 syllables. Each line contains a pause near the middle, similar to a caesura, though the break need not be metrical. The first half of the line contains six to nine syllables; the second half should contain no fewer than five. Originally intended as songs, sijo can treat romantic, metaphysical, or spiritual themes. Whatever the subject, the first line introduces an idea or story, the second supplies a “turn,” and the third provides closure. Modern sijo are sometimes printed in six lines.

Let’s write poetry together!

When it comes to partnership, some humans can make their lives alone – it’s possible. But creatively, it’s more like painting: you can’t just use the same colours in every painting. It’s just not an option. You can’t take the same photograph every time and live with art forms with no differences.

–Ben Harper (b. 1969)

Would you like to create poetry with me and have a completed poem of yours featured here at the Skeptic’s Kaddish? I am very excited to have launched the ‘Poetry Partners’ initiative and am looking forward to meeting and creating with you… Check it out!

Women's League for Conservative Judaism has a regular online prayer service for saying Kaddish and Mishaberach.

View on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WLCJ1

#Mazeldon #Judaism #Jewish #JewishWomen #Tefilah #Kaddish #Mishaberach

Today is my #memoir's 4th birthday. It wasn't until I wrote the preface that I realized writing the #book was my way of sitting #shiva & saying #kaddish for my father who died of early-onset #Alzheimer's. Dr. Bruce Miller, #neurologist @ #UCSF, sat shiva w/me. I will be eternally grateful.

Acknowledging that I'll never recover from how my father died has strangely liberated me to remember him (w/ and w/o the disease- I had forgotten the latter) & help others.

https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12605/finding-right-words

#EndAlz

Raddish

#BitterFoodASongOrPoem
#HashTagGames
#Kaddish

While I'm at it I'd like to mention that I belong to a small #minyan that meets Sun-Thu at 6PM Pacific on Zoom. During the summer we do both minḥa and ma'ariv; when the days are shorter we only do ma'ariv. Usually one of us gives a short d'var #torah. And, for what it's worth, I lead either minḥa or ma'ariv every Tuesday.

As you may have guessed from my previous post, we use the Conservative siddur and liturgy. The minyan is a project of the Jewish Collaborative of Orange County (CA), which my wife helped found and where she used to work.

The minyan is great for those saying #kaddish, for East Coasters for whom a late ma'ariv is more convenient, and for anybody who'd like to participate more in davening but doesn't really get the opportunity. We have people join us from all over the country, though on any given evening we'll have 10-15 participants.

If you're interested, PM me and I'll be happy to share the details. 2/2

If you need an online place to say Kaddish for your loved ones, join the Nechamah Minyan.

Email to register: https://aleph.org/civicrm/mailing/url/?u=16448&qid=6297817

#Mazeldon #Jewniverse #Jewdiverse #Kaddish #Jewish #Judaism #Minyan

Wanting to mourn/needing to resist:

"Political grief . . . reflects the feeling that your worldview or political beliefs — what we think is right vs. wrong, or morally valid — is under attack." An individual "may be mourning potential losses of [their] own rights and economic stability, as well as worried about the impact it might have on reproductive rights and public health."

https://www.salon.com/2025/01/27/surviving-political-grief-youre-not-alone-and-there-is-a-path-forward/

#Kaddish
#USPol

Wanting to mourn/needing to resist:

"Political grief . . . reflects the feeling that your worldview or political beliefs — what we think is right vs. wrong, or morally valid — is under attack." An individual "may be mourning potential losses of [their] own rights and economic stability, as well as worried about the impact it might have on reproductive rights and public health."

https://www.salon.com/2025/01/27/surviving-political-grief-youre-not-alone-and-there-is-a-path-forward/

#Kaddish
#USPol

Wanting to mourn/needing to resist:

"Political grief . . . reflects the feeling that your worldview or political beliefs — what we think is right vs. wrong, or morally valid — is under attack." An individual "may be mourning potential losses of [their] own rights and economic stability, as well as worried about the impact it might have on reproductive rights and public health."

https://www.salon.com/2025/01/27/surviving-political-grief-youre-not-alone-and-there-is-a-path-forward/

#Kaddish
#USPol

#Auschwitz #Memorial #Kaddish #Prayer
The best English translation I could find.

Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in thy well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”

#Auschwitz #Memorial #Kaddish #Prayer
The best English translation I could find.

Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in thy well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”

Announcement from #SpinozaHavurah (an international online Humanistic Jewish community):

Join us on Saturday, January 25th at 10 am Eastern (4 pm UK) for a #Farbrengen (Jewish discussion session) led by @jmb.

We will start our together with a short niggun and maybe a special song to listen to, but then will transition into some of time of discussion on the topic of Self-Care during hard times from a Humanistic Jewish perspective. Along the way we will have a few interactive activities (including some light stretching) and of course some breaks for a drink (alcoholic or not, as is your custom), and finally close with our #Humanistic version of the Mourner's #Kaddish.

To register, please go to: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/dfd24crFRi-yhx6FWX7XrA

#HumanisticJudaism #Farbrengen #Shabbat #Havurah #Mazeldon

Announcement from #SpinozaHavurah (an international online Humanistic Jewish community):

Join us on Saturday, January 25th at 10 am Eastern (4 pm UK) for a #Farbrengen (Jewish discussion session) led by @jmb.

We will start our together with a short niggun and maybe a special song to listen to, but then will transition into some of time of discussion on the topic of Self-Care during hard times from a Humanistic Jewish perspective. Along the way we will have a few interactive activities (including some light stretching) and of course some breaks for a drink (alcoholic or not, as is your custom), and finally close with our #Humanistic version of the Mourner's #Kaddish.

To register, please go to: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/dfd24crFRi-yhx6FWX7XrA

#HumanisticJudaism #Farbrengen #Shabbat #Havurah #Mazeldon

Im #jüdisch​en Museum Frankfurt/M. gibt es erstmals im deutschsprachigen Raum eine Ausstellung speziell zur #Sterbekultur des #Judentum​s:

5min DLF-Beitrag:
https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/im-angesicht-des-todes-neue-ausstellung-im-juedischen-museum-frankfurt-am-main-dlf-7988f071-100.html

Zur Ausstellung:
https://www.juedischesmuseum.de/besuch/detail/im-angesicht-des-todes/

Eine schöne & einfache Erkenntnis: #Sterben hat viel mit Frieden zu tun.

#Kaddish #Trauer #Hospizarbeit #Trauerbegleitung

https://lithub.com/remembering-paul-auster/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Lit%20Hub%20Daily:%20May%2028%2C%202024&utm_term=lithub_master_list

#PaulAuster
#Kaddish

Ask the Expert: Can I Sit Shiva For Anyone? Can I sit shiva for someone I'm not obligated to mourn for?

By Rabbi Avigayil Halpern

"...In my own experiences of losing loved ones, I have returned again and again to an article I was assigned to read in rabbinical school, a personal essay entitled “Let’s Bring Back Mourning Clothes.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lets-bring-back-mourning-clothes_b_2743861

The author describes a deep need for her grief to be legible without much explanation, writing that “I don’t want my grief to be private and unobtrusive; I want my grief to be understood without my having to constantly explain it. Everything now feels too loud and too bright.” Jewish mourning practices offer us a way to make our grief understood, and they are not restricted to the realm of obligatory mourning..."

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/ask-the-expert-can-i-sit-shiva-for-anyone/

#Mazeldon #Jewniverse #JFedi #Kaddish #Shiva

@stevesilberman. So sorry, Steve. Too much loss. Remembering #kaddish.

@stevesilberman. So sorry, Steve. Too much loss. Remembering #kaddish.

Rabbi Elie Kaunfer's take on the mourner's #kaddish makes a lot more sense to me right now than the usual one.

"Yitgadal Ve-Yitkadash Shemei Rabbah. This is often translated into English as 'Magnified and sanctified be His great name.' [...] But the prayer is not a praise; it is a request. The worshiper is asking for God to be magnified and to be sanctified, implying — correctly — that God is not magnified and sanctified right now."

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-mourners-kaddish-is-misunderstood/

Rabbi Elie Kaunfer's take on the mourner's #kaddish makes a lot more sense to me right now than the usual one.

"Yitgadal Ve-Yitkadash Shemei Rabbah. This is often translated into English as 'Magnified and sanctified be His great name.' [...] But the prayer is not a praise; it is a request. The worshiper is asking for God to be magnified and to be sanctified, implying — correctly — that God is not magnified and sanctified right now."

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-mourners-kaddish-is-misunderstood/

"#Bibliotherapy is about discovering ways to divert and even heal our minds through reading. It’s about the power of finding the right #book at the right time, as I have experienced in my own life."

https://psyche.co/ideas/reading-books-is-not-just-a-pleasure-it-helps-our-minds-to-heal

#MobyDick
#Kaddish
#Remainder
#TheTrees
#TravelersToUnimaginableLands

"#Bibliotherapy is about discovering ways to divert and even heal our minds through reading. It’s about the power of finding the right #book at the right time, as I have experienced in my own life."

https://psyche.co/ideas/reading-books-is-not-just-a-pleasure-it-helps-our-minds-to-heal

#MobyDick
#Kaddish
#Remainder
#TheTrees
#TravelersToUnimaginableLands

"#Bibliotherapy is about discovering ways to divert and even heal our minds through reading. It’s about the power of finding the right book at the right time, as I have experienced in my own life."

https://psyche.co/ideas/reading-books-is-not-just-a-pleasure-it-helps-our-minds-to-heal

#MobyDick
#Kaddish
#litstudies
#bookstodon

Today we mourn the loss of #RosalynnCarter and thank her for the gifts she gave us, including the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers. She said, "there are only four kinds of people in this world: those who have been caregivers; those who are currently caregivers, those who will be caregivers, and those who will need caregivers."

#caregivers
#kaddish

Today we mourn the loss of #RosalynnCarter and thank her for the gifts she gave us, including the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers. She said, "there are only four kinds of people in this world: those who have been caregivers; those who are currently caregivers, those who will be caregivers, and those who will need caregivers."

#caregivers
#kaddish

Today we mourn the loss of #RosalynnCarter and thank her for the gifts she gave us, including the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers. She said, "there are only four kinds of people in this world: those who have been caregivers; those who are currently caregivers, those who will be caregivers, and those who will need caregivers."

#caregivers
#kaddish

@doctormfo @appassionato @fladdle @bookstodon.

Here are a few that helped me: #Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking; #Ginsberg's #Kaddish; #Gabbard's A Life Beyond Reason.

@doctormfo @appassionato @fladdle @bookstodon.

Here are a few that helped me: #Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking; #Ginsberg's #Kaddish; #Gabbard's A Life Beyond Reason.

Saying #Kaddish for #JohnnyCash, who died twenty years ago today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxURXuzRUX4

Saying #Kaddish for #JohnnyCash, who died twenty years ago today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxURXuzRUX4

I am working on a reading of #Ginbserg's #Kaddish, one of my favorite #poems. And this line: "There, rest, No more suffering for you. I know where you've/gone, it's good." My heart.

#AllenGinsberg

I am working on a reading of #Ginbserg's #Kaddish, one of my favorite #poems. And this line: "There, rest, No more suffering for you. I know where you've/gone, it's good." My heart.

#AllenGinsberg

#IHaveAlwaysJustAssumedThat

the most amazing line in #Ginsberg's #Kaddish is "O beautiful Garbo of my Karma."

#HashTagGames

#IHaveAlwaysJustAssumedThat

the most amazing line in #Ginsberg's #Kaddish is "O beautiful Garbo of my Karma."

#HashTagGames

Reading and thinking about #Ginbserg's #Kaddish and came across this line that I've read many times but today stopped me in my tracks:

"There, rest. No more suffering for you. I know where you've/
gone, it's good."

#Poetry
#litstudies

What #poem(s) do you turn to? https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/19/readers-poems-help-hard-times/

Me? #Ginsberg's #Kaddish and #ASupermarketInCalifornia

#Dickinson "TheBrainIsWiderThanTheSky and #AfterGreatPainAFormalFeelingComes

#poetry, #litstudies

What #poem(s) do you turn to? https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/19/readers-poems-help-hard-times/

Me? #Ginsberg's #Kaddish and #ASupermarketInCalifornia

#Dickinson "TheBrainIsWiderThanTheSky and #AfterGreatPainAFormalFeelingComes

#poetry, #litstudies

What #poem(s) do you turn to? https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/19/readers-poems-help-hard-times/

Me? #Ginsberg's #Kaddish and #ASupermarketInCalifornia

#Dickinson "TheBrainIsWiderThanTheSky and #AfterGreatPainAFormalFeelingComes

#poetry, #litstudies

Happy Birthday "O beautiful Garbo of my Karma." #Ginsberg, #Kaddish, #poetry

Happy Birthday "O beautiful Garbo of my Karma." #Ginsberg, #Kaddish, #poetry

"O beautiful Garbo of my Karma." #Ginsberg #Kaddish. One of my favorite lines in one my favorite poems. An homage to Naomi Ginsberg, his #mother. #poetry, #litstudies https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49313/kaddish

"O beautiful Garbo of my Karma." #Ginsberg #Kaddish. One of my favorite lines in one my favorite poems. An homage to Naomi Ginsberg, his #mother. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49313/kaddish

"O beautiful Garbo of my Karma." #Ginsberg #Kaddish. One of my favorite lines in one my favorite poems. An homage to Naomi Ginsberg, his #mother. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49313/kaddish

Released in 2019, Nathan Englander’s Kaddish.com can feel prophetic in its prediction of digitized and commodified spirituality and community. https://momentmag.com/book-review-jdate-for-the-dead/
#books #bookreview #covid #spirituality #religion #judaism #mourning #kaddish #mournerskaddish #prayer #jewish

@larsibacken
See/hear also: "Zweistimmig", or how to combine the #poetry of #Celan (here the #poem "Wolsbohne"), the deep, warm, vibrant voice of #German #actor Ben Becker, and the #yiddish-accented, creative, soulful #clarinet of the great Giora Feidman. Together, they create a sober, restrained but emotional #requiem, or better a #kaddish, in a non-religious yet deeply #Jewish way, for the late #poet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDVP7ICM0cw