AS FEATURED IN AMI MAGAZINE In this newest work culled from a year long series in AMI Magazine, Rabbi Kamenetzky discusses his year of mourning and saying the Kaddish prayer, in memory of his mother. The book contains insights into the mystical prayer and lends much meaning to the mourning process.
************************* From The Jewish Star's review by Alan J. Gerber
November, 2016
This week's "review'' is basically a personal note of tribute to one of our community's leading educators, Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky, for the grace and eloquence that he has demonstrated in memory to his late mother, Rebbitzen Tzirel Kamenetzky. This son's tribute comes in the form of a small, emotionally charged anthology, "Kaddish Chronicles" (originally serialized in Ami magazine, where he is a regular columnist), featuring 46 heartfelt essays detailing his journey of mourning through this past year.
This work concludes with a poem, "The Last Kaddish," that sums up the author's deepest emotions, a litany of tears in verbal form, that summarizes a period of religiously mandated mourning and what one might expect will follow this intense emotional experience.
What impressed me most in this poem was the author's high personal regard for his fellow mourners, whom he now leaves behind in the daily Kaddish routine as he returns to a "normal" lifestyle. Rabbi Kamenetzky's prose and rhyme give these emotions the power and force for all to appreciate and emulate in thought and deed as our emotions reflect upon their inner spiritual message.
********* From a Reader I have been reading your Kaddish Chronicles column for the entire year, never missing even one. They have inspired and uplifted me greatly during the year of aveilus for my mother who was niftar just a few days before yours. Thank you for the bittersweet journey - bitter for what the year commemorated, but somewhat sweet due to your heartwarming messages, and the hope and inspiration they provided.
******* Also Contains the Kaddish Prayer in large Print Transliterated
About the Author: Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky is the scion of a distinguished family, including both Chassidic dynasties and Lithuanian Roshei Yeshiva. The grandson of the late venerable Torah sage and world leader, Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetzky, of blessed memory, and a student of some of the world's most prestigious yeshivos, Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky has a virtual storehouse of Torah information. His delightful weekly Streets of Life column is savored by thousands weekly in AMI Magazine, and his weekly Parsha Parables colums is a staple of the weekly newspaper Yated Ne'eman, where he also serves as a contributor to thweekly edcation forum, Chinuch Roundtable, in that newspaper. In person shares this knowledge with those who attend his lectures - as well as the thousands reached through his Divrei Torah via faxes and e-mail. His most cherished lessons, however, are given at Yeshiva Toras Chaim at South Shore, in Hewlett, NY, where he serves as Dean.
