By Shel Bassel, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer

The recitation of the Kaddish by mourners has come to be perhaps the single most important reason found by many to attend shul. Oddly, most of those people don’t know why the Kaddish is so important nor what it means. The words are in Aramaic, even more foreign to many Jews than Hebrew.

Nonetheless, because of the importance attached to saying Kaddish, a long-standing and deeply entrenched custom has come about at many shuls.

The custom is for the mourner to come to shul on a parent’s or close relative’s yahrzeit (anniversary of death) in the hopes of having a minyan (quorum of 10 required to recite certain public prayers).

Often, there is no minyan present so toward the end of the service, the rabbi may go out and call some members by phone in a last-ditch attempt to get the few men necessary to fill out the quorum.

If 10 men are present by the end of the service and the mourner can say Kaddish, it is generally considered to be a success by the mourner — he or she, they will think, have fulfilled their duty to those who have passed on.

But why do mourners recite Kaddish? Why is it said in this ancient and practically dead language, and what is its significance? Furthermore, if the only really important reason to have a minyan is to say Kaddish, why don’t we simply gather a minyan on any given yahrzeit, have the mourner recite the Kaddish and forget about the service entirely?

The Kaddish was not initially established for mourners. The prayer was developed in the post-Second Temple period when Aramaic was the lingua franca in Palestine and in Babylonia, the centers of Jewish learning. Kaddish was said at the end of a Torah class given by a rabbi and was designed to be a statement of faith that ultimately God’s name should be and will be sanctified and magnified at a time when all the world will embrace the notion of a single God. It was composed in Aramaic so that all those present would understand its message clearly.

The spiritual power associated with the Kaddish is considerable. R. Yehoshua ben Levi, a prominent rabbi in third-century Babylonia declared, “(Even) a harsh sentence is torn up for anyone who replies Amen Y’hei Shmei Rabbah Mvorach (part of the Kaddish) with all their might.”

The question then is: How did the Kaddish come to be associated with mourning?

The Talmud and later Midrashic (rabbinic interpretive)literature promote a concept that there are things that a child can do in this world which aid the parent who has passed on.

Of course, none of us knows what happens to the departed soul, but there is the fear that they will be punished, perhaps harshly, for misdeeds they committed while still a part of this world. However, if we can do good things in this world, their soul can be elevated and leave behind whatever punishments they might be otherwise sentenced to and instead ascend to higher levels in the world to come.

Thus we find in a Midrash the following story:

Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai said: “Once I was walking along the road. I found a man gathering wood. I spoke to him but he did not reply. Afterward, he came to me and said to me, ‘I am dead and not alive.’ I said to him, ‘If you’re dead, what do you need wood for?’ He said to me, ‘Rabbi, listen to me while I tell you something. When I was alive, I and my friend had a shop. When we came here, we were sentenced to be burnt. When I gather wood they burn my friend, and when he gathers wood they burn me.’ I asked him, ‘How long is your sentence for?’ He replied, ‘When I came here, I left a pregnant wife and know she gave birth to a male child. Please, watch out for him from the time he is born until he is 5 years old. Then take him to the teacher’s house to learn Torah. At the moment he recites Barchu et Hashem Ham’vorach (the call to prayer) they will raise me from the sentence of Gehinnom.’”

In a later telling of this story, some of the details are changed. One of them is that saying the Kaddish takes the place of saying Barchu. Another is that ultimately, the parent can ascend to the heights of the World to Come and sit with all the righteous people there.

We learn several things from the story. One is that a child has the power by his actions to elevate the soul of a parent in the afterlife. We also understand that the primary concern for the child is that he learn Torah first.

But when he is able to say Barchu or Kaddish, in a minyan presumably, then his learning will be consummated and the parent will be raised from his punishment. Another point is that the Barchu or the Kaddish were prayers that could be recited even by a minor.

The implication is that someone who would be post-Bar Mitzvah age would be able to lead the entire prayer service but that even a minor could recite these short prayers and still be of help to his parent.

We can understand, then, that the basic concept of saying Kaddish — which is associated with the canceling of a harsh sentence — became bound up with the concept that a child, through his learning and public prayer, has the power to raise a parent from punishment in the afterlife and to assume a prominent place in the World to Come.

When considering these sources, we can’t help but note that Kaddish is inexorably linked to learning Torah and to prayer. That is, Kaddish is not an entity that stands on its own; one does not simply gather a minyan to say Kaddish and thereby promote the soul of the departed. It is only in the context of learning Torah or prayer that the recitation of Kaddish has this power and significance.

Thus, anyone who is truly concerned with fulfilling their duty to a deceased parent or relative should first of all make certain that they pray properly, with a minyan of people who are also praying properly.

In fact, if possible, the mourner himself should lead the davening. The full prayer service includes Torah learning so that when Kaddish is recited it comes in the wake of both prayer and learning.

If one cannot lead the service themselves, they should at least make sure to participate in a full prayer service with a minyan from the beginning.

“Getting in a Kaddish” at the end of davening does not really accomplish the goal of the mourner to say Kaddish in a proper way.

May we all merit the ability and opportunity to say Kaddish properly.

Shel Bassel graduated in the first eighth-grade class of Hillel Academy. A Torah scribe and teacher, he served this spring and summer as ritual director at Beth Jacob Synagogue. He resides in Israel with his eight children.