According to Jewish tradition, those mourning a close relative recite the Aramaic prayer known as Kaddish (literally, “sanctification”) daily from the funeral until eleven months after the death. Following the Jewish calendar, those whose spouses, siblings, parents, and children were murdered on October 7 concluded saying Kaddish this week. Sivan Rahav Meir reflects:
Kaddish opens with the mourners expressing their desire to glorify and sanctify the magnificent Name of God: “Yitgadal v’yitkadash shmei rabbah!” [May his great name be magnified and hallowed!] The words that follow describe a perfect world that has achieved its tikkun (rectification) and beseeching that God’s presence in the world be further magnified.
Since every human being is created in God’s image, when a person passes away, God’s revelation in the world is diminished somewhat. Something holy is now missing from our world. Therefore, we request that the divine light be increased to fill that void. And this year, that void is almost unfathomable.
But at the same time, Israel marked a very different milestone, with the first wedding in Kibbutz Be’eri since the attacks that destroyed it almost completely and claimed the lives of many of its residents:
The groom, Elad Dubnov, and his bride, Mika, had married in a civil ceremony on October 7, 2022. On their first wedding anniversary, they woke up to a nightmare. Mika was absent, but her family was in their safe room, cut off from communication for hours. Only two days later did she learn that her aunt, Galit Meisner, had been murdered by the Hamas terrorists. On October 8, Elad was called up for reserve duty. Before he left, the couple decided to have a traditional wedding in the Kibbutz Be’eri synagogue. “I always wanted a traditional Jewish wedding, and now Mika had come around,” Elad said.
Read more on Jerusalem Post: https://www.jpost.com/judaism/torah-portion/article-816588