[Avodah] Hilchos Kaddish

[Arie Folger]

R'D Bannett wrote:
> But another interesting OTOH that, however, proves nothing.
> One says yehei shmeih with all his "koach".   Koach in
> gematria is 28.  There are 28 words from yehei to b'alma
> (except for the Gr"a). this is why we say min kol during the
> year and mikol when we add a second l'eila.  And, if we add
> a yud in shmeih, there are 28 letters in the response from
> yehei to al'maya (for those who don't add yitbarakh).


First of all, the minhag to insist on 28 words is Lurianic, and was
not accepted by all communities. The Rödelheim siddur doesn't have
mikol, and in Basil, we say le-ejlo, le-ejlo mikol birchohsso ...

Secondly, the Roqea'h does talk of the number of letters in the phrase
yehei...'almaya, and he has a drash on it, that does not involve any
plays on koa'h=28. Instead, he has 29 letters, which, since we recite
qaddish 7 times a day (so says the Roqea'h), gets us to 203 letters.
We also recite amen of before that phrase, seven times, totalling
203+7=210. That is to save us from the ReDU, which is the sod of
'hatzot layla aqum lehodot lekha.

I am sorry of I can't explain the above beyond what the Roqea'h
writes, but I fear, not being an expert (or even a novice) in the
thought of 'Hassidei Ashkenaz, that I am seeing this through
anachronistic Lurianic eyeglasses.

Anyway, please do not silently combine olde minhag Ashkenas with more
recent "touch ups."

(I would sign with a Seinfeld reference, as the Nussach Nazi, but in
connection with Ashkenaz, this is a particularly bad joke, so ...)


Sincerely yours,
the Nussach Zealotry Student,
-- 
Arie Folger,
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