The Kaddish for ourselves in response to Covid-19 Losses
As I have struggled to find meaning and sanity in this pandemic, a sense of tremendous loss hit me with sadness and the need for hope. I felt a urge to say the words we describe as the mourner’s prayer “yitgadal ve yitkadash” – “Exalted and hallowed be God’s Name.” But had anyone I knew died or even contracted the virus?
No it was my sense of loss: of security, my ability to hug friends, my seeing faces, to travel and learn first-hand about other cultures, the casual restaurant meals with friends. While not traditional, in our family we often reference saying”kaddish” for broken treasured possessions, torn favorite clothing, lost opportunities.
So, why not say the traditional kaddish for our losses during this pandemic? After all the Kaddish is a prayer of hope and expectations of better conditions from the source of creativity, and secondly the Kaddish is deeply rooted in Jewish history reflecting a sense of continuity of a life affirming people. A third twist is the nuance of the holy, which speaks to the uniqueness of each of us in the universe.
The proposal is not only for Jews who might say the actual words, but even for non-Jews who might only make reference to saying the kaddish.