(א) אבל: יִתְגַּדַּל וְיִתְקַדַּשׁ שְׁמֵהּ רַבָּא. [קהל: אמן]
(ב) בְּעָלְמָא דִּי בְרָא כִרְעוּתֵהּ וְיַמְלִיךְ מַלְכוּתֵהּ בְּחַיֵּיכון וּבְיומֵיכון וּבְחַיֵּי דְכָל בֵּית יִשרָאֵל בַּעֲגָלָא וּבִזְמַן קָרִיב, וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן: [קהל: אמן]
(ג) קהל ואבל: יְהֵא שְׁמֵהּ רַבָּא מְבָרַךְ לְעָלַם וּלְעָלְמֵי עָלְמַיָּא:
(ד) אבל: יִתְבָּרַךְ וְיִשְׁתַּבַּח וְיִתְפָּאַר וְיִתְרומַם וְיִתְנַשּא וְיִתְהַדָּר וְיִתְעַלֶּה וְיִתְהַלָּל שְׁמֵהּ דְּקֻדְשָׁא. בְּרִיךְ הוּא. [קהל: בריך הוא:]
(ה) לְעֵלָּא מִן כָּל בִּרְכָתָא בעשי”ת: לְעֵלָּא לְעֵלָּא מִכָּל וְשִׁירָתָא תֻּשְׁבְּחָתָא וְנֶחֱמָתָא דַּאֲמִירָן בְּעָלְמָא. וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן: [קהל: אמן]
(ו) יְהֵא שְׁלָמָא רַבָּא מִן שְׁמַיָּא וְחַיִּים עָלֵינוּ וְעַל כָּל יִשרָאֵל. וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן: [קהל: אמן]
(ז) עוֹשה שָׁלוֹם בעשי”ת: הַשָּׁלום בִּמְרומָיו הוּא יַעֲשה שָׁלום עָלֵינוּ וְעַל כָּל יִשרָאֵל וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן: [קהל: אמן]
Glorified and sanctified be God’s great name throughout the world
which God has created according to the divine will.
May God establish sovereignty in your lifetime and during your days,
and within the life of the entire House of Israel, speedily and soon;
and say, Amen.
May God's great name be blessed forever and to all eternity.
Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored,
adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be God,
beyond all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that
are ever spoken in the world; and say, Amen.
May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us
and for all Israel; and say, Amen.
God who creates peace in the celestial heights,
may God create peace for us and for all Israel;
and say, Amen.
Dr. David Shyovitz
A Twelfth Century Ashkenazi Custom: Response to the Catastrophe of the First Crusade?
Scholars of Jewish liturgy have typically traced the origins of the Mourner's Kaddish back to 12th century Ashkenaz (Franco-Germany). The fact that a prayer for mourners would have been newly introduced in this setting seems logical. After all, the turn of the twelfth century (1096) witnessed a deeply traumatic series of massacres inflicted on the Jews of the Rhineland by armies of Crusaders headed east to the Holy Land, who thought it expedient to wipe out the enemies of Christ living within their borders before pursuing foes beyond them.
The throngs of newly grieving mourners, in this telling, required a ritual outlet, and found one in the Kaddish, with its stirring proclamation of Divine majesty and promise of impending redemption. It seems natural that a prayer born of a need for closure and commemoration has come to epitomize the Jewish response to more recent catastrophes.
Jewish Word | The Mourner’s Kaddish
The well-known prayer hasn’t always been associated with death.
- April 5, 2021
- BY GEORGE E. JOHNSON
- ...
ברייתא קטנים מקבלים פני שכינה שנאמר זרע יעבדנו יסופר לה׳ לדור: [גמ׳] איבעיא להו מכפרין עון אבות או לא, ת״ש דר׳ עקיבא נפק לההוא אתרא אשכחיה לההוא גברא דהוי דרי טונא אכתפיה ולא הוה מצי לסגויי ביה והוה צוח ומתאנח, א״ל מאי עבידתיך א״ל לא שבקנא איסורא דלא עבידנא בההיא עלמא ועכשיו איכא נטורין עילוון ולא שבקין לי דאינוח א״ל רבי עקיבא שבקת ברא א״ל בחייך לא תשלין דדחילנא ממלאכי דמחו לי בפולסי דנורא ואמרין לי אמאי לא תיתי בפריע א״ל אימא ליה דקא ניחותך, א״ל שבקית אתתא מעברתא אזל ר׳ עקיבא עאל לההיא מדינתא, אמר להו בריה דפלוני היכא (ליה) אמרו ליה יעקר זכרו דההוא שחיק עצמות א״ל אמאי אמרו ליה ההוא לסטים אכל אינשי ומצער בריתא ולא עוד אלא שבא על נערה המאורסה ביום הכפורים. אזל לביתיה אשכח אתתיה מעוברתא נטרה עד דילדה, אזל מהליה לכי גדל אוקמי׳ בבי כנישתא לברוכי בקהלא לימים אזל ר׳ עקיבא לההוא אתרא איתחזי ליה א״ל תנוח דעתך שהנחת את דעת.
BARAITHA. Children meet the Divine Presence, as it is stated, A seed shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord unto the next generation.
GEMARA. The question was asked: Do [young children by their death] atone for the sin of their fathers or not? Come and hear: R. ‘Aḳiba went to a certain place63A cemetery. where he met a man64i.e. a ghost. carrying a heavy load on his shoulder with which he was unable to proceed, and he was crying and groaning.
He asked him, ‘What did you do [in your lifetime]?’ He replied, ‘There is no forbidden act in the world which I left undone, and now guards have been set over me who do not allow me to rest’. R. ‘Aḳiba asked him, ‘Have you left a son?’ He answered, ‘By your life! do not detain me because I fear the angels who beat me with fiery lashes and say to me, “Why do you not walk quickly?” ’.
R. ‘Aḳiba said to him, ‘Tell me, whom have you left?’65 He replied, ‘I have left behind my wife who was pregnant’. R. ‘Aḳiba then proceeded to that city and inquired, ‘Where is the son of So-and-so?’ [The inhabitants] replied, ‘May the memory of that wicked person66lit. ’may his bones be ground to dust’ an imprecation against a wicked person. be uprooted’. He asked them the reason, and they said, ‘He robbed and preyed upon people and caused them suffering; what is more, he violated a betrothed girl on the Day of Atonement’.
He made his way to the house and found the wife about to be delivered of a child. He waited until she gave birth to [a son], circumcised him and, when he grew up, took him to the Synagogue to join in public worship. Later R. ‘Aḳiba returned to that [cemetery] and [the ghost] appeared to him and said, ‘May your mind be [always] at rest because you have set my mind at rest’.67This story indicates that a child can atone for a parent’s sins.
Dr. David Shyovitz
It once happened that Rabbi Akiva was passing through a cemetery, and he came upon a man who was naked, and black as coal, and carrying a great burden of thorns on his head. Rabbi Akiva thought that the man, who was running like a horse, was alive. Rabbi Akiva commanded and stopped him, and said to him: “Why does that man (oto ha-ish) do this difficult work? […]
Observing the dead man’s charred appearance, Akiva concludes that the trees are being used to burn the man for some unspecified sins:
[The man] said to him: “That man is dead, and every day I am sent out to chop trees.”
[Rabbi Akiva] said to him: “My son, what was your profession in the world from which you came?”
[The man] said to him: “I was a tax collector (gabai ha-mekhes), and I would favor the rich and kill the poor.”
[Rabbi Akiva] said to him: “Haven’t you heard anything from those appointed to punish you about how you might be relieved?”
“There is no relief for that man.”
“I did hear from [those appointed over me] one impossible thing: ‘If only this poor man had a son who would stand in front of the congregation and…have them answer yehe sheme rabah mevorakh(may His great name be blessed) he would be immediately released from his punishments.’”
But when he eventually finds the son, matters do not appear promising. The townspeople respond with derision when Akiva asks after the dead man; the son, for his part, is uncircumcised, and rejected by his community:
[Akiva] asked after him, and they said, “May the bones of that man be ground up” … He asked after his son, and they said, “He is uncircumcised—we did not even perform the mitzvah of circumcision for him!”
Even after Akiva circumcises him, the boy proves unwilling or unable to absorb the lessons the rabbi imparts:
“[Akiva] put a book in front of him. But he would not accept Torah study, until Rabbi Akiva fasted for forty days. A heavenly voice said to him: ‘For this you are fasting?’”
Even God seems nonplussed by the notion that Akiva is preparing the child to intercede on his father’s behalf. Only after Akiva continues to beseech God for assistance does He “open the child’s heart,” allowing him to learn the basics of Jewish worship. And once he leads the congregation in Kaddish, the sinful father is indeed freed from his punishment, and raised up to the Garden of Eden. The text concludes,
Therefore, it is customary to appoint a person who does not have a father or mother to lead the services at the conclusion of the Sabbath, in order to say… Kaddish.