the same as ours?” Don got serious. “Now, that’s a serious question,” he said. “That could take some time. But, why wouldn’t it be? Aren’t we made in his image?” “Yes,” I said. “That’s what they tell us.” “So?” Don asked. “So?” I said. We were quiet for a moment. “Don,” I said, “What was God’s desire?” What, indeed?
… Resound through the Creation
Now.
God is called The Great Name in the first line of our version, and it could be asked whether or not the sound of this Great Name had a beginning, or has an end, or if it ever ceases to sound? Each articulation, each sounding of the Great Name, the Origin and Source of all things, carries the dual meaning of the word “original”: that which existed at the beginning, and that which has never existed before. To sound, then, is to resound. And, to resound, is to sound.
And, the only moment in which anything can make its sound, is the only moment there is or ever has been. It is the moment we call Now. We tried to indicate the singularity of what a moment is by giving the word its own line.
And say, Yes. Amen.
One day, Don and I were talking about the fact that though there are many names of God, in Jewish tradition it is said we cannot know them, and so we refer to God in different ways. I asked Don, “Are none of God’s names known?” and he said, “Sure they are, but not by so many people. Although,” he continued, “actually, everyone knows them.” “What are some of them?” I asked. “Well,” Don said. “Now, that’s a question! But, I’ll tell you,” and he leaned toward me in the posture of someone about to reveal a gem. “One of God’s names is Yes!” And then he shouted it a second time, to make sure I knew what “Yes” could really mean. “And another one,” he told me, and this one he really shouted, “is Now!”
Throughout all Space, Bless, Bless this Great Name,
Throughout all Time.
We repeated the word “throughout,” and we strung out the length of the line here to give the sense of what “throughout” could mean. It means all the way through, one hundred percent, and beyond even that. If we think of the nature of undifferentiated space and time before the Creation, that is “throughout,” “space,” and “time.”
Name That Is Holy, Blessed One,
“Name that is Holy” is another way of referring to God. It is like “Great Name” in the first line. But, “Blessed One” is not just like saying to someone, “You are blessed to me, you are my blessed one.” No. For the “Name that is Holy,” the name that is blessed, is One, is Oneness itself. And since it is Oneness, it is beyond all naming. Beyond even saying it is “beyond.” No word can say what Oneness truly is. And so we say “Beyond! Beyond!”
The One who has given a universe of Peace
gives peace to us, to All that is Israel.
As long as we live in a dualistic way, based on dualistic thinking, the peace of living as oneness, as One, evades us. Every tradition speaks about this. Only when human beings return to one, to oneness, can our world repair itself and return to the original peace that is its birthright, its nature, its origin, its source. After all, the source of peace is Peace itself. The source of oneness is One. One and Peace are not two things.
We capitalized the A of All as a way of inserting into the Kaddish the sound of Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Why? Because the sound of Aleph is silence. It is the Great Silence from which all possible articulation derives. Out of this silence comes laughter, come sounds of the pain of living, come blessings and prayer, come questions and confusion, comes praise. And out of the silence of Aleph comes our own silence, a silence of oneness shared, at the heart, by All. Is this not the sound of the Great Peace we seek?
The original Kaddish contains the word Israel, and so it is in our translation as well. But, what is Israel? Is it a geopolitical entity? A particular people? One of the mystical Judaic definitions of the word Israel that I love is “one who struggles with God, or with their relationship with God.” I knew there would be controversy when our translation seemed to ask for peace for Israel. It could seem so divisive. And, when I was at the Auschwitz retreat a few years ago, I saw that my expectation was correct; someone heatedly told me that Don and I were “wrong to do it.”
But, that is why we said to All that is Israel, which places the Aleph of “All” in close proximity to “Israel.” After all, we knew this was a Kaddish to be said at Auschwitz. What better place to remind us of the pain in our hearts, the pain of the struggle all human beings suffer to understand the rigors and nature of reality just as it is. And, what better place to remind us, right there in the midst of that pain, of the ever-present potential for discovering the very oneness that defines the path of peace.
And say, Yes. Amen.
Canada (2012)
Ein Midrasch zum Übersetzen des Kaddisch
Wenn ein Wort klar ausgesprochen wird, so heißt es in der jüdischen Tradition, werden die ihm innewohnenden Eigenschaften und die Bedeutung, die es in sich trägt, in die Welt entbunden. In den jüdisch-christlichen Lehren findet sich das bekannteste Beispiel dafür in der Genesis, die uns berichtet, dass Gott sprach: „Es werde Licht!“, und es wurde Licht.
Vom Schöpfer ausgesprochen, brachte das Wort die Gegebenheiten und die Wirklichkeit hervor, die es in sich barg.
Diese Lehre lag mir sehr am Herzen, als mein lieber Freund Rabbi Don Singer und ich in meinem Atelier im kalifornischen Topanga begannen, gemeinsam das Kaddisch zu übersetzen. Unsere Übersetzung würde beim ersten Retreat des ZenPeacemaker-Ordens in Auschwitz im November 1996 verwendet werden, in eben jenem Monat und Jahr der Geburt meines Sohnes.
Letzten Endes verspüre ich als Dichter und Übersetzer die gleiche Sehnsucht wie die meisten Schriftsteller, die sich bemühen, ihre Worte in irgendeiner Weise die Sache selbst werden zu lassen in den Herzen und im Geist derer, die das Geschriebene hören oder lesen. Es war beruhigend für mich, Don an meiner Seite zu wissen. Einen wahren Gefährten auf einer so mysteriösen Reise zu haben ist etwas sehr Schönes.
Was nun folgt sind einige Auffassungen, die Don und ich über den Tisch hinweg austauschten, als wir versuchten, einige der mystischen Bedeutungen des ursprünglichen Kaddisch – beinahe wie im Dunkeln geflüsterte Geheimnisse – in unsere Übersetzung einfließen zu lassen.
Etwaige Fehler und jede falsche Ausrichtung liegen selbstredend bei uns. Wir umarmen sie freudig.
Möge der Große Name, dessen Begehren das Universum gebar
Ich weiß noch, wie schockiert ich war, als Don mir sagte, das Wort im Original könne als Begehren übersetzt werden. „Gott fühlt Begehren?“, fragte ich. Don lächelte. „Gewiss“, meinte er, „warum nicht?“ „Na ja“, sagte ich und dachte an meine schwangere Frau, „vermutlich hast du recht. Schließlich geht der Geburt von etwas oder jemandem ja