SHOULD I SAY KADDISH FOR THE CHIPMUNK AND THE SQUIRRELS?
I have the privilege of sitting in a small woods behind my suburban house most mornings. I have a bench I sit on, and a whole ritual that involves prayer, meditation and noticing what is around me. About a month ago, I saw a chipmunk who ran within 10 feet of the bench (anything more than 25 feet and I wouldn’t see him/her.) I saw the chipmunk pretty steadily over the next week, but it’s been about two weeks since I last saw him/her. There’d been a chipmunk in the same ecological niche maybe five years ago who had also disappeared after a few weeks.
At the same time, I usually see three of four squirrels in the area. They live inside a dead standing tulip tree that has a nice sized hole in it. They claimed the hole from a pair of tufted titmice (if that’s the plural of one tufted titmouse) as I watched the titmice build a nest inside and then the squirrels discovered it and that was the end of the titmice in the hole. As I say, I usually see three of four squirrels in the area who often play chase and generally make a decent amount of noise scratching on the trees, rustling through the leaves and just talking to each other.
And yet in the past two weeks, I’ve only seen one. Usually I see the squirrels almost daily, but I've only seen this one once or twice.
I miss my rodent friends. I’m worried that they turned into lunch for some predator. The list of predators for these little beings is long and includes the foxes whom I expect to see later in the spring and summer walking past my bench as I have every year for at least the past five years.
As I sat there this morning, I was wondering if I should recite Kaddish for them, or how I would know when to believe that they have died. Those are two different questions. I believe that someone more knowledgeable than I would have a greater sense of the likelihood of their death. Squirrels have a decent sized territory, so maybe they just went to hang out at my neighbors? But chipmunks have a much smaller territory so maybe it is more likely that my friend is no longer with us in chipmunk form? I really don’t know.
As for saying Kaddish, I see this as a way to acknowledge their death and the loss that the survivors (me in this case) feel. I know Jewish law limits who is supposed to say Kaddish for whom. I also know that part of this is that the living have to go on with the business of living and that’s why we limit those who mourn. But if not me, then who, to paraphrase Hillel and take it in a slightly different direction. I’m the only human who notices these beings, who has any kind of relationship with them. That itself is a tragedy worth mourning. But I wouldn’t want to say Kaddish for them if they have not died.
We are blessed to live in a beautiful world, even as there are all sorts of horrible things happening in it. We owe it to all our relations to recognize and acknowledge our connections. I think perhaps I shall say Kaddish.
