Thursday, August 1, 2019

Afternoon worship at the office: When I get there, a coworker is laying out cookies and soft drinks on the conference table. I first guess that he's decided that you can attract more worshipers with munchies than with badgering, but there's more to it. Today, because it's the eleven-month anniversary of his father's death, he will stop saying Kaddish at each service. A sign next to the cookies says "For the elevation of the soul of (whomever) son of (whomever)." Apparently, each prayer said with each item eaten helps propel his father's soul into the World to Come. I tell him that I hadn't encountered that custom before (though later, I realize that I had, at the House of a Hundred Grandmothers). He says "That is good. I hope you never have to do this." He leads the service himself, zooming through it, loud and staccato like an auctioneer. Within moments after the end of worship, all the cookies have been consumed.