[An interpretive translation of the Jewish "Mourners' Kaddish."]
May we celebrate the Great Name that binds together and lives within all our names, along with all the names of all the beings in the universe, now and in all times before and yet to come;
May the Great Name, through our own deeper wisdom and our fuller action, lift Itself to become still higher and more holy;
May the names of all whom we can no longer touch but who have touched our hearts and lives, remain alight within our memories and in the Great Name;
May the names of all who have died in violence and war be kept alight in our sight and in the Great Name, with sorrow that we were not yet able to shape a world in which they would have lived. (Cong: Ah-mein, ah-min, ay-men.)
May Your Great Name through all our efforts lift Itself still higher and more holy throughout the world that You have offered us, a world of sacred and majestic peaceful order that gives life through time and through eternity ---- And let's say, Ah-mein, ah-min, ay-men.
So therefore may the Great Name be blessed, through every Mystery and Mastery of every universe.
May the Great Name be blessed and celebrated, Its beauty honored and raised high; may It be lifted and carried, may Its radiance be praised in all Its Holiness --- Blessed be!
Even though we cannot give You enough blessing, enough song, enough praise, enough consolation to match what we wish to lay before you -
And though we know that today there is no way to console You when among us some who bear Your Image in our being are slaughtering others who bear Your Image in our being.
Still we beseech that from the unity of Your Great Name flow a great and joyful harmony and life for us and for all;
You who make harmony in the ultimate reaches of the universe, teach us to make harmony within ourselves, among ourselves -- and peace for all the children of Abraham and all who dwell upon this planet. (Cong: Ah-mein, ahmin, ay-men.)
[Interpretive translation by Rabbi Arthur Waskow, director of The Shalom Center]
