A Kaddish offering in memory of those who died clinging to the Tree of Life:
When we say Kaddish, it is as if a cascade—
a small waterfall of words
begins to trickle from our mouths…
Yitgadal, you are magnified—we begin our voices soft…
V’yit’kadash, you are sanctified—more voices join in holy words
She’mei rabah, our voices gain strength.
When we say Kaddish,
As if a cascading waterfall of words,
our voices join together
trickling, then flowing, and then a deluge,
As our hearts join together
And the floods of emotion, unspoken grief, fear, anger, guilt
WHY, HOW, NEVER AGAIN,
Pour out from our souls…
Cascading over the steep rocky slopes of being human.
But water always finds water.
Droplets of love always find other droplets of love.
Puddles of grief always, we pray, find ripples of hope.
And so now we join our hopes, our faith, our words, our tears, our hearts, our prayers,
Cascading from whispers as we begin…
Raising our voices louder and louder together—
Until—Oseh Shalom—the One who makes peace—
Which right now is as if but a trickle—
Hu Ya’aseh Shalom—louder and louder again—
yes, You! Yes, You, the One who makes peace—
in a deluge of voices, we demand—
Flood our world, God, help us flood our world
with nourishing waters of justice, compassion and love.
With love, we remember the 11 victims of Saturday’s tragedy:
Joyce Fienberg, 75, of Oakland;
Richard Gottfried, 65, of Ross;
Rose Mallinger, 97, of Squirrel Hill;
Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, of Edgewood;
brothers Cecil Rosenthal, 59, of Squirrel Hill, and David Rosenthal, 54, of Squirrel Hill;
married couple Bernice Simon, 84, of Wilkinsburg; Sylvan Simon, 86, of Wilkinsburg;
Daniel Stein, 71, of Squirrel Hill;
Melvin Wax, 88, of Squirrel Hill;
and Irving Younger, 69, of Mt. Washington.
Yit’gadal v’yitkadash…
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