A Question for Agricola

[agricola]

Many Christians believe two things about Judaism which are false/wrong.

One: that Judaism is Christianity only without Jesus (or conversely, that Christianity is Judaism but WITH Jesus). This is wrong. While both modern faiths began around the same time from the same philosophical origins, the path each took in the first three centuries of the modern era were VASTLY different and rapidly diverged.

Two: that Judaism NOW is just like Judaism described in the Bible (colored by New Testament interpretation) and that nothing significant or substantial has changed (this is why I used to get calls from local ranchers when we lived in Nevada, and I was 'the face' of the Jewish community there - They would call asking if we needed a lamb for Passover. And why I get asked, too often, why we no longer sacrifice animals. Or why I get asked, VERY often, what on earth do we think we should do to 'get saved', now that we DON'T have a Temple and don't sacrifice animals.)

and I suppose a third: assuming that they ARE RIGHT about what Jews believe, because they DON'T know anything about Judaism except what they read in 'the Bible' - without knowing the background or culture, or realizing that it has been TWO THOUSAND YEARS since then, and no, we are NOT preserved in amber, and we actually have had quite an interesting and rich theological history over that period of time.

It is extremely exasperating (and happens a lot) when some well meaning Christian (EXPECTING an answer aligning with his pre-existing opinions because he KNOWS) asks a question (thinking to clarify something, I suppose) about Judaism - belief or practice - and we give that Christian a perfectly correct answer -

AND THEN THEY ARGUE THAT WE ARE WRONG!!!

Oddly enough, we usually are, in general, ABSOLUTELY CORRECT ABOUT WHAT WE BELIEVE AND DO.

It's like we are always getting gaslighting about OUR OWN FAITH PRACTICE, and being told we don't really believe/do that.

[zeek]

I have another question about Jewish practices. Do women say kadesh for their dead loved ones or is that something only men do?

[agricola]

It depends. Women CAN say kaddish for the dead, they just don't say it publicly in a mixed gender setting - IF they are orthodox.
Conservative Jewish women do recite kaddish, and so do Reform Jewish women.
Reconstructionist - I don't really know for certain - Reconstructionism is an offshoot of Conservative Judaism, but tends to 'behave' in a somewhat more traditional way.

Kaddish comes in several versions. There is hatzi kaddish (short kaddish) which is recited at the end of each major section of a prayer service. And there is kaddish (longer) and there is MOURNER'S kaddish, which is what you are actually asking about.

Here's the main point:
every kaddish is a PUBLIC recitation, and is not recited unless there is a minyan. Orthodox (and some Traditionalists) require 'a minyan' to consist of at least ten MALE Jews. Conservative and Reform usually count adult Jewish women in the ten persons needed to form a minyan.

NOBODY RECITES KADDISH ALONE. IT IS ALWAYS A PUBLIC ('congregational') prayer.

If a person is praying alone, (liturgy and all) certain prayers are NOT recited, and one of those is kaddish.

People (including women)who are in the mourning period (11 months) generally do their best to JOIN a congregation (minyan) daily SO THAT they can recited mourner's kaddish. So yes, the answer to your question is actually 'yes, women recite kaddish' - but in an orthodox setting, there have to be ten adult MEN present or the prayer is not recited by anybody.

In non-orthodox congregations, women count, and at least ten adult Jews (male or female or both) make a minyan.

[agricola]

Mourner's Kaddish:

May the great Name of God be exalted and sanctified, throughout the world, which he has created according to his will. May his Kingship be established in your lifetime and in your days, and in the lifetime of the entire household of Israel, swiftly and in the near future; and let us say, Amen.
May his great name be blessed, forever and ever. Blessed, praised, glorified, exalted, extolled, honored, elevated and lauded be the Name of the holy one, Blessed be he – above and beyond any blessings and hymns, praises and consolations which are uttered in the world; and let us say Amen.

May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and life, upon us and upon all Israel; and let us say, Amen.

He who makes peace in his high places, may he bring peace upon us, and upon all Israel; and let us say Amen.

(here is hatzi (short) kaddish for comparison:

May His great Name be blessed forever and for all eternity. Blessed and praised, glorified, and exalted and uplifted, honored and elevated and extolled be the Name of the Holy One, blessed is He; far above all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations which we utter in the world - and let us say Amen.)

[zeek]

That is a lovely prayer. Thank you for explaining. Also, please forgive my misspelling. I have a dear friend who is Jewish; his grandparents, on both his father and his mother's sides, emigrated to the U.S. from Russia before the Bolsheviks took over. I've heard him speak of saying kaddish for his parents and thought it was the same word I remembered seeing in the Old Testament, "Kadesh". It seems like I recall there being something about Kadesh Barnea.

[agricola]

The words are related.
Hebrew has a 'root' system for word building, and a word basically consists of three root consonants, FROM WHICH, all forms of the word are built (English does something a bit similar, but with syllables - examples: gen (Latin for 'family', more or less): genre, genes, gentleman, gentile, regeneration, degenerate and so forth - see the 'gen'? That syllable 'carries' a similar meaning ('relatedness', perhaps) through ll those words).

The root for kaddish - and for Kadesh - and for Kodosh, and mikdash, etc - is KDS(SH). The meaning carried by 'kds(s)' is 'holiness', or 'separation' (as for a purpose).

(you also run into spelling differences that mean nothing at all, because somebody transliterated a Hebrew word into English, and there aren't any actual rules about how to do that - this is why there are like, twenty ways to spell Hanukkah (root H(or Ch) N, K. A related word is chinuch, for instance, or L'hanokh (to dedicate) - Hanukkah is 'dedication' (as in dedicating something. Chinuch is education - l'chanekh is 'educate' - clear? sort of?)

KDSh carries the idea of setting something aside as special, something 'holy'.

Kadosh - holy
kadesh/kaddish - these are almost just alternative spellings - holiness, or holy
kedushah - make holy, or (noun) holiness creation? Something like that. You might buy a wine cup, and with full kedushah (holy intention?) make it kadosh (holy) and reserved for use to say Shabbat wine blessings, for instance. Yes, kedushah is 'mindful holiness making'. what we call 'kavvanah' - intention.
mikdash - temple


Kadesh Barnea - that's a place - it means (apparently) desert, or wandering place (no place to settle down in). So 'holy desert of wandering'.

I can see that as the name of some old town in Arizona, actually.

Lashon haKodesh is the holy tongue (Hebrew)
Ha-Kodesh Baruch Hu - 'the holy one, blessed be He' (a prayer phrase)

[agricola]

Oh - by the way - mourner's kaddish - all the kaddishes - is not in Hebrew. It's in Aramaic.

If you learn a bit of Hebrew, you will notice that these prayers aren't QUITE Hebrew!

There are tons of cognate words in Aramaic, that are very similar to Hebrew, but there are enough differences to tell.

[agricola]

Also Hebrew accents (stresses) the last syllable - it's is ka-DESH.
In YIDDISH (which is a Germanic language really - the pronunciation is KAH-dish.

In English, it is also 'KAH-dish', because English borrowed the word from YIDDISH, which borrowed it from Hebrew, and merrily proceeded to pronounce it as if it were a German word.

[agricola]

End of teeny lesson. Ask something else!

[zeek]

OK, I read once in a Jewish commentary concerning the place in Exodus where Moses is before the burning bush and asks G_d's name and the reply in the KJV is "I am that I am." That according to Hebrew scholars that would have been better rendered as "I am what I will be." Don't ask who the Jewish scholar was, I haven't a clue. What are your thoughts on the translation of that passage?