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Heart and Soul: Kaddish - why we pray for the dead

Heart and Soul: Kaddish - why we pray for the dead

Michael Goldfarb looks at the origins of Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead

The Documentary Podcast · BBC World Service

January 17, 202526m 28s

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Show Notes

Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize winner and Holocaust survivor, once told Michael Goldfarb of people going to their deaths at Auschwitz asking who will say Kaddish for me? Kaddish is the Jewish prayer for the dead. On the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz' liberation Michael Goldfarb explores the origins and meaning of Kaddish. How did a prayer for the dead, in which death is not mentioned, become the centrepiece of Jewish mourning?