Kaddish


Kaddish or Qaddish or Qadish is a hymn of praises about God found in Jewish prayer services. The central theme of the Kaddish is the magnification and sanctification of God's name. In the liturgy, different versions of the Kaddish are used functionally as separators between sections of the service.
The term "Kaddish" is often used to refer specifically to "The Mourner's Kaddish", said as part of the mourning rituals in Judaism in all prayer services, as well as at funerals and memorials; for 11 Hebrew months after the death of a parent, and for 30 days after the death of a spouse, sibling, or child. When mention is made of "saying Kaddish", this unambiguously refers to the rituals of mourning. Mourners say Kaddish to show that despite the loss they still praise God.
Along with the Shema Yisrael and Amidah, the Kaddish is one of the most important and central elements in the Jewish liturgy. Kaddish cannot be recited alone. Along with some prayers, it can only be recited with a minyan of ten Jews.

Variant forms

The various versions of the Kaddish are:
All versions of the Kaddish begin with the Hatzi Kaddish. The longer versions contain additional paragraphs, and are often named after distinctive words in those paragraphs.
Historically there existed another type of Kaddish, called Qaddish Yahid. This is included in the Siddur of Amram Gaon, but is a meditation taking the place of Kaddish rather than a Kaddish in the normal sense. It is not recited in modern times.

Usage

The Half Kaddish is used to punctuate divisions within the service: for example, before Barechu, after the Amidah, and following readings from the Torah.
The Kaddish d'Rabbanan is used after any part of the service that includes extracts from the Mishnah or the Talmud, as its original purpose was to close a study session.
Kaddish Titkabbal originally marked the end of a prayer service, though in later times extra passages and hymns were added to follow it.

Text of the Kaddish

The following includes the half, complete, mourner's and rabbi's kaddish. The variant lines of the kaddish after a burial or a siyum are given below.

Text of the burial kaddish

In the burial kaddish, and that after a siyum according to Ashkenazim,i, lines 2-3 are replaced by:

Recent changes to Oseh Shalom

In some recent prayerbooks, for example, the American Reform Machzor, line 36 is replaced with:
36all Israel, and all who dwell on earth; and let us say: Amen.v'al kol isra'el, v'al kol yoshve tevel; v'imru: Amen.

This effort to extend the reach of Oseh Shalom to non-Jews is said to have been started by the British Liberal Jewish movement in 1967, with the introduction of v'al kol bnai Adam ; these words continue to be used by some in the UK.

Analysis of the text

The opening words of Kaddish are inspired by, a vision of God becoming great in the eyes of all the nations.
The central line of the Kaddish is the congregation's response: , a public declaration of God's greatness and eternality. This response is similar to the wording of. It is also parallel to the Hebrew "" ; Aramaic versions of both יה שמה רבה and ברוך שם כבוד appear in the various versions of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan to Genesis 49:2 and Deuteronomy 6:4.
The Mourners, Rabbis and Complete Kaddish end with a supplication for peace, which is in Hebrew, and is somewhat similar to the Tanakh.
Kaddish does not contain God's name. It is said that this is because Kaddish has 26 words, equalling the gematria of the Lord's name itself, and the Kaddish text proves that from the very beginning with words "May His great name be exalted and sanctified".

Customs

Kaddish, as used in the services on special days, is chanted. There are different melodies in different Jewish traditions, and within each tradition the melody can change according to the version, the day it is said and even the position in the service. Many mourners recite Kaddish slowly and contemplatively.
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In Sephardi synagogues the whole congregation sits for Kaddish, except:
In Ashkenazi synagogues, the custom varies. Very commonly, in both Orthodox and Reform congregations, everyone stands for the mourner's kaddish; but in some synagogues, most of the congregants sit. Sometimes, a distinction is made between the different forms of Kaddish, or each congregant stands or sits according to his or her own custom. The Mourner's Kaddish is often treated differently from the other variations of Kaddish in the service, as is the Half Kaddish before the maftir.
Those standing to recite Kaddish bow, by widespread tradition, at various places. Generally: At the first word of the prayer, at each Amen, at Yitbarakh, at Brikh hu, and for the last verse. For Oseh shalom it is customary take three steps back then bow to one's left, then to one's right, and finally bow forward, as if taking leave of the presence of a king, in the same way as when the same words are used as the concluding line of the Amidah.

Minyan requirement

, an eighth-century compilation of Jewish laws regarding the preparation of holy books and public reading, states that Kaddish may be recited only in the presence of a minyan. While the traditional view is that "if kaddish is said in private, then by definition it is not kaddish," some alternatives have been suggested, including the Kaddish L'yachid, attributed to ninth-century Gaon Amram bar Sheshna, and the use of kavanah prayer, asking heavenly beings to join with the individual "to make a minyan of both Earth and heaven". In some Reform congregations, a minyan is not required for recitation of the Kaddish, but other Reform congregations disagree and believe that the Kaddish should be said publicly.

History and background

"The Kaddish is in origin a closing doxology to an Aggadic discourse." Most of it is written in Aramaic, which, at the time of its original composition, was the lingua franca of the Jewish people. It is not composed in the vernacular Aramaic, however, but rather in a "literary, jargon Aramaic" that was used in the academies, and is identical to the dialect of the Targum.
Professor Yoel Elitzur, however, argues that the Kaddish was originally written in Hebrew, and later translated to Aramaic to be better understood by the masses. He notes that quotations from the Kaddish in the Talmud and Sifrei are in Hebrew, and that even today some of the words are Hebrew rather than Aramaic.
The oldest version of the Kaddish is found in the Siddur of Rab Amram Gaon, c. 900. "The first mention of mourners saying Kaddish at the end of the service is in a thirteenth century halakhic writing called the Or Zarua. The Kaddish at the end of the service became designated as Kaddish Yatom or Mourner's Kaddish."

Hebrew reconstruction

Professor Yoel Elitzur made an attempt at reconstructing the theorized original Hebrew version of Kaddish:
Rav David Bar-Hayim also attempted a reconstruction:

Mourner's Kaddish

Mourner's Kaddish is said at all prayer services and certain other occasions. It is written in Aramaic. It takes the form of Kaddish Yehe Shelama Rabba, and is traditionally recited several times, most prominently at or towards the end of the service, after the Aleinu and/or closing Psalms and/or Ani'im Zemirot. Following the death of a child, spouse, or sibling it is customary to recite the Mourner's Kaddish in the presence of a congregation daily for thirty days, or eleven months in the case of a parent, and then at every anniversary of the death. The mourner who says the Kaddish will be any person present at a service who has the obligation to recite Kaddish in accordance with these rules.
Customs for reciting the Mourner's Kaddish vary markedly among various communities. In Sephardi synagogues, the custom is that all the mourners stand and chant the Kaddish together. In Ashkenazi synagogues before the year 1831, one mourner was chosen to lead the prayer on behalf of the rest, but since then most congregations have adopted the Sephardi custom. In many Reform synagogues, the entire congregation recites the Mourner's Kaddish together. This is sometimes said to be for those victims of the Holocaust who have no one left to recite the Mourner's Kaddish on their behalf and in support of the mourners. In some congregations, the Rabbi reads a list of the deceased who have a Yahrzeit on that day, and then ask the congregants to name any people they are mourning for. Some synagogues, especially Orthodox and Conservative ones, multiply the number of times that the Mourner's Kaddish is recited, for example by reciting a separate Mourner's Kaddish after both Aleinu and then each closing Psalm. Other synagogues limit themselves to one Mourner's Kaddish at the end of the service.
Notably, the Mourner's Kaddish does not mention death at all, but instead praises God. Though the Kaddish is often popularly referred to as the "Jewish Prayer for the Dead," that designation more accurately belongs to the prayer called "El Malei Rachamim", which specifically prays for the soul of the deceased. The Mourner's Kaddish can be more accurately represented as an expression of "justification for judgment" by the mourners on their loved ones' behalf. It is believed that mourners adopted this version of the Kaddish around the 13th century during harsh persecution of Jews by crusaders in Germany because of the opening messianic line about God bringing the dead back to life.

Women and the Mourner's Kaddish

Though there is evidence of some women saying the Mourner's Kaddish for their parents at the grave, during shiva, and in daily prayers since the 17th century, and though R. Bacharach concluded in "the Amsterdam case" that women could recite the Mourner's Kaddish, this is still controversial in Orthodox communities, with various rabbis restricting the ruling. Despite these restrictions, recitation of the Mourner's Kaddish by Orthodox Jewish women is becoming more common. In 2013 the Israeli Orthodox rabbinical organization Beit Hillel issued a halachic ruling that women may say the Kaddish in memory of their deceased parents. In Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist Judaism, the Mourner's Kaddish is traditionally said by women who are also counted in the minyan.

Use of the Kaddish in the arts

The Kaddish has been a particularly common theme and reference point in the arts, including the following:

In literature and publications