Letter: Kaddish appeal

Sunday 27 June 1999 23:02 BST

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Sir: In her review of Kaddish by Leon Wieselter ("What the dead bring to life", 24 June), Elena Lapin states that the Kaddish prayer talks about a great peace from heaven.

The Kaddish is a prayer to God asking him to send the Messiah in our time.

This reflects the early Jewish belief that the dead "slept with their fathers" until they would be resurrected by the Messiah.

Later on, rabbinic Judaism accepted the idea of an afterlife in spite of the biblical injunctions against it (Thou shalt not do as the Egyptians).

But the traditionalist Saduccees never did.

TITO BENADY

Grendon,

Northamptonshire

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