Talmud Class: The October 7 Kaddish, the Holocaust Kaddish, and Hallel

From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life

The prayer life of the Jewish people gives voice to contradiction and dissonance. On the one hand, all week long we have been singing Hallel, in which we acclaim how God saves us: I called on Adonai; I prayed that God would save me.... God has delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I shall walk before Adonai in the land of the living. On the other hand, a poem by Israeli Asaf Gur, called Kadish, offers a different reality. Yisgadal V'yiskadash Shmei Raba And no one came Many thousands called Him on Shabbat morning Crying His name out loud Begging Him with tears just to come But He ceased from all His work No God came And no God calmed Only Satan celebrated uninterrupted Dancing between Kibbutzim and the slaughter festival... This poem evokes the spirit of the Kaddish we recite on Yom Hashoah: Yitgadal Auschwitz Vyitkadash Lodz Sh'mei raba Ponar... What do we do with this dissonance? Is the Joseph story helpful? When Joseph is sold into slavery, when he is unjustly sent to prison for a crime he did not commit, when he lives as a prisoner, three times the Torah says "The Lord was with Joseph." What does that mean, and what does that mean to us?