And Kaddish? His name is bestowed on him by a rabbi: “Let his name be Kaddish to ward off the angel of death. A trick and a blessing. Let this child be the mourner instead of the mourned.” And so the man who erases memories of the dead is named for the Jewish prayer of mourning that contains neither the name of the departed nor any mention of death at all. The prayer is a memorial built only of words. Implicit in its recitation is the acknowledgment of the responsibility to remember the dead, wherever they are, whoever they are.
NATHAN ENGLANDER | Brookline Booksmith, 270 Harvard St, Brookline | May 2 @ 7 pm | 617.566.6660
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