Enter your email address to receive newsletters and camp alerts by email. D'Var Torah: It Takes a Minyan...To Say Kaddish 11/20/2009 This Dvar Torah is written with gratitude to all those in the Ramah Darom community who have helped to make a minyan for me during this year of saying kaddish for my father, Burton Lesack z"l. I would especially like to recognize and thank the boys and counselors of tzrif 6 who made minyan for me a number of times during the summer when I was unable to attend the main camp minyan. I have long been a minyan-goer, and as such, have davened in minyanim all over the world. From New York to Bangkok, Moscow to Jerusalem, and Prague to El Paso, my minyan experiences have opened up my eyes to different shuls, communities and customs. They have introduced me to the various davening practices that exist within the larger Jewish community and the specific particularities that differentiate one minyan from the next. Although I have often paid attention to the many elements that help to characterize a certain minyan (type of siddur used, speed of davening, friendliness of the regulars, etc.), this year I have placed greater focus than before on these elements and on the prayers that are said daily. As I conclude the 11-month period of saying kaddish for my father, Burt Lesack z"l, I'd like to reflect upon some of the laws related to minyan and to the recitation of the prayer that I have, sadly, had to utter this past year. Our tradition places great emphasis on the communal prayer experience. Judaism does not prohibit one from praying alone, but it is very clear from the sources that praying in a quorum is the ideal method of prayer. The structure of the prayer service is designed with this idealized notion of communal prayer at its core, such that certain sections of tefila (prayer) can only be uttered if a minyan is present: the Barchu, the repetition of the Amidah, the kedusha, Torah reading, and the kaddish. But the rabbis, throughout the generations, were aware that the ideal may not always be reachable. As a result, they built into hilchot tefila (the laws of prayer) various leniencies to allow for the recitation of certain elements of the tefila that typically require a minyan even if a minyan (or the ideal make-up of a minyan) was not technically present. These leniencies, however, do not apply to the mourner's kaddish. Let us explore this phenomenon. The Talmud (Brachot 3a) highlights the importance of the language of the kaddish. Rabbi Yose comments that whenever the Jewish people enter into the synagogue or the beit midrash and in hearing the opening words of the kaddish (in this case specifically the kaddish d'rabbanan - also known as the rabbi's kaddish, typically recited after a text is studied) respond with the words "yehei shmei hagadol mevorach" (May His Great Name Be Blessed), that God himself expresses gratitude for being praised by His people. This is just one rabbi's comment about the kaddish prayer, but emblematic of the value that has been attached to it by the rabbinic establishment and the Jewish people. We see this value clearly highlighted in the Shulkhan Arukh and the Mishna Berura (Jewish law codes from the 16th and the 19th/20th century respectively). The section that discusses the kaddish (section 45) very simply begins that we are supposed to say the kaddish (in this case the half-kaddish recited after pesukei d'zimra but before shacharit) but that it is only recited if a minyan is present. A variety of statements, which I would categorize as leniencies, are then codified detailing what can and cannot be said if a minyan is not present. Some of those leniencies include the following: - If one began to recite the half-kaddish (before shacharit) or the kedusha (in the Amidah) when a minyan was present, but then people left and 10 are no longer present, one can continue saying the half-kaddish or the kedusha as long as there are still 6 or more people in attendance. - If one began the repetition of the Amidah when a minyan was present, but then people left and 10 are no longer present, one can continue to say the kedusha (assuming there are still 6 or more people in attendance) - If there are only 9 adults in attendance, there are those who allow a minor (pre-Bar Mitzvah age) to be included in the minyan and for the minyan to recite all kedusha-related statements - If the tenth person of a minyan begins the Amidah on his own and cannot respond to the kedusha, or even if he is sleeping, there are some who permit him to be counted in the minyan and to allow the recitation of kedusha-related statements Commenting on the second leniency (above), Rabbi Moses Isserles (16th century) states that one can even say the kaddish shalem (the full kaddish), which is the final kaddish of the morning service, if one began the Amidah with a minyan. It is assumed that the half-kaddish which comes directly after the recitation of the Amidah, and Tachanun (morning supplications), can also be recited without a minyan present. One might think that the same would then hold true for the mourner's kaddish, typically recited after the Aleinu. However, the Mishna Berura (19th/20th century) points out that in fact, if there is no minyan present at the time that the mourner's kaddish is supposed to be recited, that it cannot be recited. This seems like an odd and even unfair decision, so why is this the case? Why does the mourner's kaddish require that a minyan be present in order for it to be recited? The basic halakhic (Jewish law) rationale to this position seems to be that whereas the half-kaddish and the full-kaddish are actual and necessary parts of the service (they serve to break-up sections of the service or signify the end of the service), that the mourner's kaddish does not have the same function. It is, in the words of the Mishna Berura, "just a custom." It is a type of kaddish that, while meaningful, was added late to the liturgy as a matter of widespread communal practice (probably not much earlier than the 8th century but common by the Middle Ages) and as such, does not have the status of a required prayer of the service. Today's Jews may see it as integral to the service but the law does not. So let me offer a non-halakhic rationale to this position, one that is a direct result of my experience of saying kaddish this year. Kaddish is a prayer that needs community so that the mourner can feel supported, so that the mourner can feel a little less alone, and probably most importantly, so that the mourner can find a way to praise God even though offering praise is antithetical to the feelings that he is feeling at this point. We can make leniencies for the recitation of other types of kaddish because while we know that it is best that we recite them in a minyan, we believe that God will hear our praise even if that minyan cannot be present at the appropriate point in the service. But reciting the kaddish yatom , the mourner's kaddish, is not about a community praising God. I believe it is more about helping a person in the community find the strength to praise God at a time when praise is not what he necessarily wants to offer. And in that moment, this individual needs a community around him, a community as defined halakhically in the most basic sense - a minyan. When a group of individuals form a minyan so that a mourner can say kaddish, these individuals lay the foundation for the mourner to connect, or perhaps reconnect, with God even in a time of deep pain. And in so doing, they show the mourner that they will be there to support him on this journey even if it may be a difficult one. Whether in a time of joy or a time of sadness, our tradition teaches us that it is more preferable to praise the King in a community than to do so alone. Thank you to those who have enabled me to find the strength to praise Our Creator even during this difficult year. May you reap the benefits of the mitzvah that you have done for another person for many years to come. Chodesh Tov, Rabbi Lesack