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Editorial Review:
When Leon Wieseltier's father died, he began the traditional year-long period of mourning, reciting three times a day the prayer known as the mourner's kaddish. Struck by its unexpected power and his lack of knowledge about it, Wieseltier began to study the origin of this ancient ritual. Kaddish records his journey of discovery. Leon Wieseltier's Kaddish is a completely new kind of book. It is not quite philosophy, autobiography, history, or Midrash, but it blends all of these genres into a narrative of Wieseltier's grief during the year following his father's death. Wieseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic, is a mostly unobservant Jew whose grief compelled him to observe his religion's rituals of mourning, daily attending synagogue to recite the Kaddish (the traditional Jewish prayers of mourning). He also delved deeply into a vast range of texts describing the history and spiritual significance of these prayers. And he wrote incessantly, describing with force and clarity the process of bringing his mind and heart to bear on the grief that consumed him. Perhaps the best way of describing this moving, illuminating, hopeful, awe-filled book is to quote a stray line from the first page of the book's first chapter: "Out of tears, thoughts." --Michael Joseph Gross
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
Kaddish -- A tour de force!:
Wieseltier's book is a tour de force! Erudite, accessible, touching and deeply personal. I listened to the book during the 11-month mourning period for my mother z"l and found Wieseltier's learning stunning -- in depth and breadth, in his authoritative handling of the source material, and profoundly comforting as well.
Amongst the best:
I was given this book when saying kaddish for my mother. I found it insightful, learned and scholarly and not in the least bit indulgent as suggested by other reviewers. Its entirely accessible as one can dip in and out of its pages at will and find interesting and thought provoking material at almost every turn. A touch repetitious yes but then again the ritual of kaddish is itself repetitious but in each recitation perhaps a glimmer of meaning anew. I have been recommending it for the years since and just... more info KADDISH:
Erudite and scholarly, but written in a friendly reader manner. Still a slow but enjoyable read even with a Judaics background of names, history etc. A Sincere, Intellectual, and Philosophical Masterpiece:
If you are a religious scholar who is interested in the ancient origins of prayers offered for the dead, no academic research ever published will provide the abundance of insights that can be found on the pages of Wieseltier's "Kaddish." Similar Products:
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