Who Will Say Kaddish?


         

Who Will Say Kaddish?

 
 
 
 

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In Memoriam

By Martin Lindauer

The last of a family dies.
    Unmarried, widowed, or childless, who visits the grave?
    Children converted, who says Kaddish?
    Children adopted,
Your genes end with you.

Memories and effects of actions live on,
    But only for a generation, maybe two.
Your letters, if kept, last longer, even if unread,
    But like bones turn to dust.

What remains?

Your soul in Heaven,
    Perhaps awaiting the Messiah and Judgment Day.

More certainly,
    You remain as part of a people,
    A member of the family Abraham,
    An unbroken line surviving
    The Diaspora,
    The Inquisition,
    And the Holocaust.
Deportations, forced conversions, persecutions, prejudice.

As part of that history you are immortal.


comments welcome: mblindauer(at)earthlink.net

~~~~~~~

from the August 2006 Edition of the Jewish Magazine

 

 

 

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