8 FROM THE RHINE VALLEY TO JEZREEL VALLEY Innovative Versions of the Mourners’ Kaddish in the Kibbutz Movement DALIA MARX Someone of our generation who loses a parent or a close friend— suffers from two kinds of orphanhood, one through the loss of a dear one, and the second . . . because he has lost the forms of speech, the cherished expression and the spiritual heritage, through which his forebears used to convey their mourning . . . one orphanhood is the loss of a person, the second, the loss of tradition. Uriel Tal, “Kaddish Yatom” One can hardly imagine a prayer that evokes stronger emotional responses among Jews than the Mourners’ Kaddish. Some draw consolation from its the- ology, many more are compelled and soothed by its familiarity and repeti- tiveness, still others are alienated by its theological message. Yet few remain kpfkhhgtgpv vq vjg Mcffkuj. cpf gxgp vjg Þgteguv cvjgkuvu coqpi o{ ceswckp- tances tremble at the sound of the words “Yitgadal ve-yitkadash shemeh raba.” One reaction to the Kaddish is that of the German Jewish poet Hein- tkej Jgkpg. yjq eqpxgtvgf vq Ejtkuvkcpkv{0 Yjgp jg tgàgevgf qp jku qyp impending death, he wrote in his poem “Gedächtnisfeier” (commemoration): “Keinen Kadosch wird man sagen, / Nichts gesagt und nichts gesungen / Wird an meinen Sterbetagen” (No Kaddish will be recited / Nothing will be said or sung / on my dying days). 1 Indeed, the Kaddish represents much more than its 123