Genre: Contemporary; flash fiction
Warnings: None
Feedback: Welcome!
Summary: One man's wry and grudging observations on the Mourner's Kaddish.
Throughout All Time by J. Rosemary Moss is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
~oOo~
"Yitgadal v’yitkadash sh’mei raba . . .”
I mouthed the words along with the cantor and the other mourners. Assuming the guy leading services was a real cantor. Probably not; he was more likely a competent congregant. This synagogue was too poor to afford a full time hazzan.
“b’alma di v’ra, kir’utei,”
I hadn’t been here in years. I hadn’t even come when my father died. I didn’t sit shiva for him either; I was too angry. My wife was appalled—Eileen’s a nice Catholic girl who understands the power of ritual. But I was adamant. I despised the man while he was alive, so I refused to go through the motions of mourning his death.
