Kaddish
A prayer for the dead that makes no mention of death, written in a language that fell into disuse 16 centuries ago, why is it so powerful?
The rhythm of the Kaddish. The rising sounds of peaks and stops, punctuated by the call and response of the Amen. The Kaddish is the heartbeat of the bereaved.
Originating in parts, the Kaddish was shaped from the first century.
Written in Aramaic, the language spoken by Jews 5th century B.C.E. through 5th century C.E., it was supposed to be easy to understand. Uttering holy words in the vernacular brought holiness into everyday life.
Kaddish was not coined as a mourner’s prayer. It was said as a praise to God after study. This is where the Kaddish’s many praises that exalt God’s creation and place God above any words or expressions of praise fit in.
The custom for mourners to say Kaddish evolved when Torah was studied in the house of a mourner to garner extra merit for the deceased. By the sixth century it was incorporated as a divider between different portions of every prayer service. Unlearned Jews had access to prayer through it because it was in the Aramaic they understood. After the slaughter and mayhem of the Crusades in the Middle Ages, the Kaddish became bound up with mourning rituals.
Praising God in pain seems contradictory, even hypocritical, but it keeps the lines open to healing and forming a new relationship with the Source of Life.
In Kaddish, God is praised when it is hardest. God is praised when life defies understanding. God is praised as a pathway is sought to accept death even while asking why.
Death ends a physical presence, but goodness lives on. A life, which left survivors reciting God’s in its wake, was a lifetime well lived. Kaddish is said to encourage God to look favorably upon a soul and to sweeten its judgement with reward.
The Kaddish Response
Summary
The words of the Kaddish call for God’s name to be sanctified. It heaps praise on God with descriptions of God’s exalted grace and glory. The Kaddish’s listing of laudatory words is followed by a statement of surrender: God’s greatness cannot be captured by any words or song.
The next sections ask for the blessings of peace for the Jewish people, and closes with a prayer that God, who makes peace in the heavens, will bring serenity to the earthbound.
V’nechemata “And words of consolation”
This refers to the words of the prophets who spoke of the eventual redemption of the Jewish People. Their visions of glory and joy will not even come close to matching the actual elation of the redemption.
Oseh Shalom B’mromav “He who makes peace on high”
This phrase is a passage from the Book of Job. Job’s friends said these words to console Job in his suffering.
Commentators have explained this verse in various ways. One explanation takes the view that God aligns a universe of contradictory heavenly forces: good and evil, life and death, rain and drought. He sets these opposing drives in motion, keeping peaceful boundaries so each may operate to the fullest expression of His will. Certainly, the Power that brings harmony to these earth-rocking energies can bring peace to people who only have petty jealousies and underdeveloped intellects standing between them and acceptance of God’s will and each other.
Yehei Shmei Rabba Mevoroch L’Olam U’L’allmei Allmahya: The Kaddish Response
“May His great name be blessed forever and ever.”
Responding with these words is the Kaddish equivalent of saying “yes,” agreeing with the heaps of praise given to God in the rest of the prayer.
More than that, according to some commentators, “yehei shmei rabba” is said to acknowledge that God is perfect. This realization is the underpinning of a lifetime of faith, which is part of the reason the Talmud places such emphasis on saying “yehei shmei…” with all one’s might.
Sages have envisioned whole spiritual worlds being built with the strength of emphatic Kaddish responses.
Halacha vouches for the importance of the Kaddish. There is a rule that responding to the Kaddish overrides responding to any other prayer.
If no one is available to say Kaddish, extra Torah study or private prayers should be added instead.
Choose a course of study through a Jewish text or on a Jewish subject for the mourning period. According to some opinions, hiring others to recite Kaddish has no meaning.
