3. It is also our custom that all mourners recite Kaddish in unison.
4. The Sages attached particular significance to the response, “May His great name be blessed for ever and all time.” This should be said with full concentration by all present.
THE RABBIS’ KADDISH The Kaddish, one of the most important of all prayers, had its origins not in the synagogue but in the house of study. It grew out of a custom, still widely practised, of ending every discourse or sermon with the hope that we may speedily see the coming of the messianic age, when the sovereignty of GoD will be recognised by all the dwellers on earth. It is written mainly in Aramaic, the language most widely spoken by Jews in the first centuries of the Common Era.
It has come to have five forms: 1. half-Kaddish, recited to mark the beginning or end of a section of the prayers; 2. full Kaddish (titkabal), to mark the end of the Amidah and its associated meditations; 3. the Mourner’s Kaddish; 4. Kaddish de-Rabbanan, said after a passage from the Oral Law; 5. the Kaddish of Renewal, said only at the conclusion of a tractate of the Talmud, or by a child at the funeral of a parent.
The Kaddish deRabbanan is a prayer not only for the establishment of God’s kingdom but also for the teachers of Torah and their disciples. It is characteristic of Judaism’s value system that this is the first Kaddish we say each morning. Judaism is a faith whose passion is education, whose heroes are teachers, and whose citadels are schools and houses of study. To learn, to teach, to internalise God’s will, to join our minds with the great Sages and scholars of the past – this is a supreme expression of Judaism, and the one from which all else flows.
pesukeide-zimra / verses of praise “A person should first recount the praise of the Holy One, blessed be He, and then pray” (Berachot 32b), hence the passages that follow, known as the “Verses of Praise” The morning service from this point until the end is constructed in three movements, whose themes are: 1. Creation: GOD as He is in nature; 2. Revelation: GOD as He is in Torah and prayer; and 3. Redemption: GOD as He is in history and our lives. The theme of the Verses of Praise is Creation – GOD as Architect and Maker of a universe of splendour and diversity, whose orderliness testifies to the single creative will which underlies all that exists. The Psalms tell this story not in scientific prose but majestic poetry, not proving but proclaiming the One at the heart of all.
LAWS OF VERSES OF PRAISE:
1. From the beginning of the Verses of Praise to the end of the Amidah, there should be no talking. It is permitted, however, to answer Amen and to respond to BarChu, Kaddish and Kedushah.
2. One who arrives late and finds the congregation already saying the Verses of Praise should do the following so as to be able to say BarChu and subsequent prayers together with the congregation: 1. put on tallit and tefillin, saying the appropriate blessings; 2. make the blessings over washing hands,
3. If there is no time to say any of the Verses of Praise before BarChu, one should say prayers with the congregation, and at the end of the service go back and say the full Verses of Praise except for
The core elements of Pesukei de-Zimra are: 1. Psalm 145 (Ashrei), a prayer to which the Sages attached particular significance, specifying that it should be said three times daily; and 2. Psalms 146–150 which form the culmination and crescendo of the Book of Psalms as a whole. These six psalms correspond to the six days of creation; others are added on Shabbat and Festivals. Around this inner core other passages have been woven: some from other biblical books and others from selected verses in the Book of Psalms. The section begins and ends with a paragraph of blessings: “Blessed is He who spoke” (Baruch She’amar) at the beginning, and “May Your Name be praised for ever” (Yishtabach) at the end.
Blessed are You: The second half of the blessing is a prelude to the biblical verses that follow, mainly from the Book of Psalms (“With the songs of Your servant David we will exalt You”) but also from the books of Chronicles and Nehemiah (“extolled by the mouth of His people”). To emphasise the significance of this declaration, we recite it standing and, at the end, kiss the two front fringes of the tallit.
