Media :
Listen now (25 minutes)
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Available to listen.
Last broadcast on Sun, 14 Nov 2010, 23:05 on BBC World Service (see all broadcasts).
Synopsis
Jews throughout the world recite a special prayer, the Mourners' Kaddish, after the death of a close relative.
In Heart and Soul this week, Rabbi Naftali Brawer explores the history and meaning of this intriguing prayer with its strange contradictions.
It's the prayer for the dead, yet it never mentions death; grief is the most intimate of emotions and yet the prayer has to be said in public, and although the words date back more than two thousand years, it may owe its popularity to a medieval ghost story.
Photograph: US-born Rabbi Naftali Brawer works at a synagogue near London.
Broadcasts
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Wed 20 Oct 201012:32
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Wed 20 Oct 201016:32
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Thu 21 Oct 201000:32
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Wed 10 Nov 201012:32
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Wed 10 Nov 201016:32
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Thu 11 Nov 201000:32
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Thu 11 Nov 201004:32
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Sat 13 Nov 201020:05
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Sun 14 Nov 201002:05
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Sun 14 Nov 201023:05
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