An adaptation of addresses by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson
A treatise on the meaning of Kaddish and its influence on the soul of the departed, the mourners and those who respond with Amen, Yehei Shemei Rabbah
At the close of the 30-day mourning period and again at the close of the eleventh month of mourning for his wife -- Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka -- the Rebbe spoke of the philosophical and esoteric meanings of
Kaddish -- the prayer of Sanctification.
This essay includes the concepts expounded by the Rebbe in those sichos presenting a clear picture of the meaning of Kaddish and what it accomplishes for the soul of the departed, for the mourners and for those who hear the Kaddish being said. Kaddish even effects (as it were) an ascent in the loftiness of the Holy One, Blessed be He.
This treatise presents the reader with many profound ideas and philosophies which require further dedicated study and contemplation. We hope that with this publication we will plant the seed for ongoing study and increased understanding.
Kaddish!
The prayer of Sanctification forms an integral and vital part of the daily Jewish prayers. Strategically positioned at certain stages of prayer the Kaddish serves as a bridge in many different ways.
Generally speaking there are two types of Kaddish:
- The Rabbinic Kaddish which is recited after Torah study or homiletical discourse;
- the mourner’s Kaddish which is recited by the mourners and is associated with the ascent of the soul.
Both forms of Kaddish are invoked universally. The Rabbinic Kaddish is recited not only after profound scholarly study, discussion or halachic judgments, but also after the study or discussion of homiletics and the stories of Torah by average Jews for whom the study of the daily Talmud section might be too difficult.
Similarly, the mourner’s Kaddish is recited by the descendants of all Jews, not only the great and pious. Even one who was ignorant or sinful must be shown honor and respect by the recitation of Kaddish in his memory. Also, every mourner has to recite Kaddish (see Shulchan Aruch for specific rules), no matter what his personal situation.
So the Kaddish also evokes the idea that all Jews are special, for by saying, "Yisgadal, exalted...," even the ordinary Jew has an impact on the total Jewish people and adds greatness and holiness to the Holy One, Blessed be He.
One of the most sacred rituals which has been faithfully observed by all Jews throughout the generations is the practice of reciting Kaddish at the three daily prayers during the year of mourning. Halachah rules that we begin saying the Kaddish at the time of burial and continue until the conclusion of the eleventh month of mourning. The exact day on which we conclude saying Kaddish depends on diverse customs, and in Lubavitch our custom is to conclude the recital of Kaddish one day before the end of eleven months (see Likkutei Sichos, Vol. II, pg. 213).
In discussing this practice of interrupting the Kaddish before the end of the year, the Ramo writes in the Shulchan Aruch:
The judgment of wrongdoers (after death) lasts for 12 months and we do not want to suggest that our departed relative was a wicked person. (Yoreh De’ah 376:4)
This explanation of the
Ramo is based on the concept that the recitation of Kaddish by the mourners helps the soul of the deceased in its heavenly judgment.
We follow this common practice for all Jews since every Jew has the presumption of righteousness (see Rambam, Laws of Sanctification of the New Moon) as the prophet declares, "Your nation are all righteous." (Yeshayahu 60:21) This is true even in the case of Jews who were known to have sinned and certainly so in the case of the righteous.
We may further suggest, based on the reason just given, that in fact the cessation of the Kaddish is not merely an external show of respect, rather it has a real positive effect. When we proclaim our faith in the righteousness of the deceased it helps to neutralize any negative heavenly judgment so that the soul of the departed will be able to ascend to the realm of paradise.
This concept was expressed by the authors of the Midrash:
For when a man departs from the world, the Holy One, Blessed be He, says to the ministering angels: ‘See what his fellow-men are saying about him.’ [If they say] that he had been right-living and G-d-fearing, his bier at once flies up into the air (his soul ascends to heaven). (Koheles Rabbah 12:13)
This facet of our custom to conclude the Kaddish a full month before the
Yahrzeit emphasizes our strong faith in the efficacy of our positive action to help the soul reach its place in paradise as soon as possible.
In addition to the custom outlined above there are other customs which prescribe that the Kaddish be concluded only one week or one day before the end of the year. This approach minimizes the good effects of the practice. Since Torah is the Torah of kindness it would logically prescribe the earliest statement of good merit so that the soul of the departed could rise to its place in paradise at the earliest possible moment -- the full month before the Yahrzeit.
All this raises another question. Why do we say Kaddish on the day of the Yahrzeit at the end of the 12 months of mourning? Is it not paradoxical!? Having concluded the recitation of Kaddish at the close of 11 months (for the positive reasons explained above) why recite Kaddish again on the Yahrzeit?
One might suggest that the Kaddish at the close of 12 months is similar to the Kaddish recited each year on the Yahrzeit. The purpose of the yearly Kaddish is to effect the ascent of the soul from level to level and it is not connected to the subject of judgment.
The truth of the matter is that even though the first Yahrzeit has similarities to future Yahrzeits it also has a connection to the first year of mourning; it represents the concluding period of the first year of mourning and as such it is related to the mourning period. Consequently, it may be a Yahrzeit but it is also part of the 12 months. Which brings us back to the question, why say Kaddish at the end of 12 months, when we just stopped the Kaddish at the end of 11 months?
Let us first consider another aspect.
If the purpose of Kaddish is to alleviate the judgment of the
neshamah -- for which reason we cease saying Kaddish after 11 months -- then why is it at all necessary to recite Kaddish after the passing of a great tzaddik, a righteous man or woman? It should be quite obvious that such
neshamos have no problem with any heavenly judgment!
The answer for this dilemma may be found in the Kabbalistic writings of the Arizal (and in fact it is cited also in halachic sources).
As to the Kaddish which is recited during the first year...the reason is not as is commonly believed by the general population that it only helps to save the soul of the departed from the judgment of purgatory. There is another benefit (advantage), the Kaddish leads the soul into Gan-Eden and it helps to raise the soul from level to level. (Shaar HaKavanos, Kaddish)
It is for this reason that the Kaddish is also recited on Shabbos and Yom Tov during the eleven months. (Although all souls are relieved from the punishment of purgatory on Shabbos and Yom Tov we still say Kaddish to effect an ascent.)
There is a parallel explanation expounded in the esoteric teachings of the Arizal concerning the function of the Kaddish prayer in the order of the daily prayers. The purpose of the Kaddish, according to this interpretation, is to effect an ascent from spiritual world to spiritual world, from
Asiyahh, to
Beriahh, to
Yetzirahh, to
Atzilus. These worlds are represented by the four stages of prayer alluded to in the allegory of the "ladder standing on the ground and whose top reaches the heavens." (Bereishis 28:2) There are four rungs on the ladder and there are four ascending points in the morning prayer at which the Kaddish is recited. These "Kaddish steps" allow the individual to rise to the highest world and then to reach another four descending steps on which the revelation of above may be brought down into the reality of the world, again through the recitation of Kaddish. (There are a total of 16 Kaddish recitals during the three daily prayers and they form a construct of this rising and descending process.)
When we study the meaning of the Kaddish text we see that in fact we are speaking of very lofty ascents:
Yisgadal -- exalted and hallowed be His great Name. (Siddur)
In essence we are effecting an increase (as it were) in the greatness and holiness of the Holy One, Blessed be He. For we pronounce: "May His great Name be blessed...." We are able to effect increased blessing even in G-d’s great Name.
We may now perceive how the recitation of Kaddish after the departed soul of a righteous person will cause an ascent for the soul, to rise from lofty level to loftier levels in Gan-Eden.
Further elucidation is needed at this point.
Simple observation tells us that there is one text for the Kaddish. We say the same Kaddish for a Tzaddik, with the intention of helping raise the soul to the highest level of Gan-Eden, and we recite the self-same Kaddish for our dear departed loved ones who were not so righteous in their lifetime. We even use the same text when we recite the Kaddish for a person who would need Kaddish to be said for the full 12 months!
One of the earliest Talmudic sources which deals with the Kaddish prayer directly associates the recitation of Kaddish with the mourners and makes the point that the Kaddish alleviates the judgment of the wicked. The following story is told about Rabbi Akiva and is often quoted in Halachic works:
R. Akiva went to a certain place (a cemetery) where he met a man (the soul of a man) 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. Akiva 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. Akiva said to him, ‘Tell me, whom have you left?’ He replied, ‘I have left behind my wife who was pregnant.’ R. Akiva then proceeded to that city and inquired, ‘Where is the son of So-and-so?’ [The inhabitants] replied, ‘May the memory of that 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 [the recitation of the Kaddish]. Later R. Akiva returned to that [cemetery] and [the departed soul] appeared to him and said, ‘May your mind be [always] at rest because you have set my mind at rest.’ (Tractate Kallah Rabosi Ch. 2; Beis Yosef on Tur Yoreh De’ah Ch. 376)
Rabbi Akiva made the effort to train the child so that he would say Kaddish for his father. Through his efforts a man who had been cast to the depths of punishment was spared.
Now, why is it that we use the same Kaddish text when we want to raise the sublime Tzaddik to the loftiest supernal worlds and when we want to spare the lowly sinner from purgatory?
The explanation is as follows.
When we recite Kaddish -- no matter for whom -- even when it is for one who really needs to be saved from punishment, our intention in reciting Kaddish is to cause an elevation of the soul, in the greatest measure, to the highest levels of Gan-Eden, similar to the process we initiate for the Tzaddik. The difference is that the Tzaddik is able to rise immediately and quite openly while for others it is a delayed process. The accomplishment of the Kaddish remains concealed and does not effect the ascent until after eleven months, when the period of judgment is concluded.
It is a manifestation of the infinite mercy of the Holy One, Blessed be He, that He set the route of salvation to depend on the recitation of Kaddish by the mourners: "
Yisgadal -- exalted and hallowed be His great Name." It is this prayer which causes the loftiest ascent in the soul.
It is interesting to note that there are other areas in which the association of the mundane with the sublime adds strength to the sublime. Philosophically this symbiosis finds its source in Torah and mitzvos and it is included in the order of the devolvement of the worlds. The Al-mighty, G-d Himself, uses this pattern:
For so said the High and Exalted One, who dwells to eternity, and His name is Holy: "With the lofty and the holy ones I dwell, and with the crushed and humble in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the crushed." (Yeshayahu 57:15)
Who can revive "the spirit of the humble"? only "the High and Exalted One" who dwells "with the lofty and holy ones." The same principle applies in the case of Kaddish, in order to save the soul of the lowly Jew (the spirit of the humble) the Kaddish must be invoked: "Exalted and hallowed be His great Name!"
Another example of this may be found in the mitzvah of tzedakah.
The mitzvah of tzedakah represents a basic and simple good deed. It is an act which anyone may perform and it is certainly one of the initial steps in a person’s Divine service. One can easily help a downtrodden individual by giving him some money, food or some object of minimal value. This seemingly easy and basic good act is alluded to in Chassidic philosophy as "...truly the mitzvah of the L-rd" (Iggeres Hakodesh 17), for it is the act which G-d performs in giving life to all existence. Therefore it is G-d’s tzedakah which serves as the source to all Divine radiation and generation. The loftiest influences and the lowliest influences all stem from the tzedakah of the Holy One, Blessed be He, and that comes from the Jew’s observance of tzedakah, when he helps a poor person by giving him [as little as] a perutah.
We may draw another illustration from Torah -- let us look to the Aleph-Beis which we teach young children. Even before they are able to understand any wisdom of Torah, the letters of Aleph-Beis are taught to toddlers. These same letters combine to form all the words of Torah and all the paths of the devolvement of the world which emerge from the words of creation. More specifically, the letters of the alphabet build words, they are thus a step below the terms that they form, just as bricks are less significant than the building that is formed from bricks, yet at the same time there is an all-encompassing aspect in the letters which transcends words.
We may apply this analogy to the Kaddish phenomenon. It is a form of tzedakah for the soul -- to redeem the soul from punishment. The sinful soul is raised only by the pronouncement of the word "Yisgadal..." and this accomplishes a great lift for the soul even though sometimes it is delayed and concealed.
We may now fathom the logic for saying Kaddish once again at the close of the 12 months. The recitation of Kaddish for 11 months was for the purpose of helping the soul rise from level to level. In continuation to those ascents we say Kaddish again after the 12 months because it comes not as a time when the soul will be rescued from judgment, rather as a time when the prearranged salvation and ascension will be revealed. (While at the end of the 11 months we find only the theme of salvation.)
Although the customs and practices of the 12 month yahrzeit are generally associated with matters of mourning, nevertheless the ascent effected by the Kaddish recited at the end of the 12th month is a substantial rise and it is much more lofty than merely being saved from judgment in which case the negative aspects are removed allowing the soul to climb from level to level in Gan-Eden and bask in the glory of the Shechinah.
We are now faced with another paradox. We have explained that the Kaddish effects an ascension for the deceased and minimizes the judgment, we therefore conclude saying Kaddish for an average person after eleven months out of respect for the departed soul. It is now unclear why we cease the recital of Kaddish for a Tzaddik after 11 months?
In the case of the Tzaddik the purpose of the Kaddish is solely positive, why stop?
The answer is that even for the righteous man or woman a new stage of climbing begins after eleven months which is incomparably higher than before. The elevation in the Gan-Eden worlds attainable by the Tzaddik after 11 months is similar to the quantum-leap of the average person after 11 months. Because the jump experienced by the soul of the Tzaddik at that time is so great it is incomprehensible to say Kaddish, for even the lofty words of Kaddish are relatively weak and cannot reach the supreme energy of the ascension at that time. However, when the 12th month is reached the person saying Kaddish is on a new, higher level, and now the words of Kaddish may once again help cause the soul to rise.
On the Shabbos that follows the cessation of Kaddish a new system begins for the soaring soul and it also introduces a new order revealed in the physical world, because the new order is not only for the soul but also for the one who says the Kaddish. And it also applies to the one who hears the Kaddish and especially the one who answers, "
Amen Yehei Shemei Rabbah...." In some respects he is even higher than the one who recites the Kaddish and it also affects all within earshot. For all of these people a new stage in Divine service begins in the physical realm and in the spiritual order.
Everyone receives new strength through the process of raising the soul at the end of the Kaddish period, and this enhances Torah, mitzvos, and Yiddishkeit, in self-improvement and in working with others -- even those who are on the lowliest levels. They too can be raised in an infinite way. And if it is not immediately apparent now, you have to be patient. But you can be sure that your encouraging words will be influential over the long run.
In the portion of Shemos, while the Jewish people were still in Egypt, the abomination of the earth, the Jewish people multiplied and grew and their preciousness before G-d was revealed. They multiplied and the land was filled with them so that the gentiles also saw how they were beloved by G-d.
This phenomenon caused them to disregard the galus and to pay no attention to the prophecy that they would stay in Egypt for 210 years. They did what they could "to multiply and increase very much," in a manner of rising higher and higher, so that they received G-d’s blessing.
Similarly, in our diaspora Jews must fulfill G-d’s command to "Be fruitful and fill the land and conquer it." Parents should consider the beautiful opportunities of parenthood and the great pleasures G-d draws when a new Jewish boy or girl is born.
This population growth should also take place in the spiritual sense. Although we are in the darkness of galus we must continue to rise and increase in matters of Yiddishkeit. If we learn from the secular society, the wisdom of Egypt, we should use that knowledge for the benefit it will yield us in practical accomplishments, and in time saved, for more Torah and prayer, e.g. the study of mathematics and astronomy will help us to work out the seasons and calendar. We must also use scientific knowledge to explain to others the truth of Torah and to prove that Torah is in full accord with scientific rules.
There is another aspect to the customs of the
Yahrzeit. There is a practice to fast on a
Yahrzeit and especially on the
Yahrzeit of a Tzaddik. However, we do not find such a practice recorded in the customs of Chabad nor in the
Tanya, Torah Or or
Likkutei Torah.
In truth this follows the philosophy of general Chassidus and especially Chabad that in the later generations we should minimize fasts and self-punishment.
The Baal Shem Tov propounded this philosophy by explaining the verse:
When you see a donkey...lying under its burden... it may occur to you to follow the path of mortification of the flesh...not in this approach...rather...you must aid it...purify the body, refine it, but do not break it by mortification. (See HaYom Yom, Shevat 28)
The Mezritcher Maggid similarly said, "A small puncture of the body makes a big hole in the soul." And the Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya that in modern times we should not undertake fasts even for the sake of repentance, rather we should increase our tzedakah.
This prevalent weakness of the physical nature of the generation is not something we chose, rather it is caused by Divine Providence. G-d made these generations more frail, why? this shows us that the refinements of the world that had to be accomplished through mortification were accomplished in the previous generations; it is no longer necessary now.
And even in those matters which remain to be refined nothing will be lacking if one follows the advice of the Baal Shem Tov and the Alter Rebbe.
In these generations we can accomplish the same without pain and with joy and good health.
Chabad specifically teaches that our Divine service must penetrate the human being (not break it) -- start with the intellect and then permeate the entire being.
Carrying this point further we must nowadays refrain even from those fasts which the Alter Rebbe permitted in Iggeres HaTeshuvah, even those should be redeemed with tzedakah.
So, too, in the case of the Yahrzeit of Tzaddikim, today we can receive the spiritual revelations tied to the day through Divine service related to the body without fasting. I do not challenge other groups or customs which sanction fasting "for each river flows in its own way" and everyone must follow and climb his own trail but this is the road of Chabad. This is especially so in light of the earlier explanation of the elevation of the soul attained on a Yahrzeit as well as the elevation of those associated to the soul of the departed. In the life of the concerned individuals this will express itself in more Torah study, more charity and more mitzvos, etc.
