Kaddish — Meaning & Symbolism, Hardcover (ArtScroll)

The meaning and symbolism of the well-known but little understood prayer.

Almost every Jew has heard Kaddish said, answered amen to it, and at some point stood and said it himself, yet very few could explain what its Aramaic words actually declare or why this particular text became the prayer of the mourner. Rabbi Nosson Scherman takes those questions directly and works through the Kaddish as a statement about Hashem's Name and the world's recognition of it.

At 64 hardcover pages this is a short book by design. It can be read through in an evening, which matters enormously for the person who needs it most: someone who has just begun a year of saying Kaddish and has neither the appetite nor the concentration for a long volume. Read once and returned to during the year, it turns a daily obligation into something understood.

The 6 by 9 inch hardcover holds up to being handed around a family, and it is a thoughtful thing to bring to a shivah house or to give before a yahrtzeit, when a gift needs to be quiet and useful rather than celebratory.

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