Thursday, December 5, 2019

Linked Post from Chabad.org: Why and When Did Mourners Start Saying Kaddish Together?

Why and When Did Mourners Start Saying Kaddish Together?

By Yehuda Shurpin

Most surprising in this article is the finding that two famous Yekke's actually promoted - one temporarily - multiple people saying kaddish.

One of the first to mention the custom to have all mourners recite the Kaddish is Rabbi Yaakov Emden (1697–1776), who writes in his siddur that “with regard to various laws about who takes precedence for Mourner’s Kaddish among the Ashkenazim, I will not discuss it, as it is only a custom (and how good and right is the Sephardic custom that if there are many mourners, all merit and recite the Kaddish together, avoiding strife and disagreement) . . .”2 In other words, Rabbi Yaakov Emden felt that it would be wise for Ashkenazim to follow the Sephardic custom of reciting the Kaddish together and thereby avoiding strife.

Note from reader EA:

Rabbi Hamburger discusses this R. Emden approval of this minhag in his lecture found in YUtorah.org at minute 46 onwards: https://www.yutorah.org/lectures/lecture.cfm/789579/rabbi-binyamin-hamburger/the-development-of-kaddish-yasom/

3 comments:

  1. Rabbi Hamburger discusses this R. Emden approval of this minhag in his lecture found in YUtorah.org at minute 46 onwards: https://www.yutorah.org/lectures/lecture.cfm/789579/rabbi-binyamin-hamburger/the-development-of-kaddish-yasom/

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  2. "Rabbi Hamburger discusses this R. Emden approval of this minhag in his lecture found in YUtorah.org at minute 46 onwards"

    I just listened for it, and minute 46 is not the point. You may have meant minute 38 (which seems to fit more) or some other point (please correct this error in the post as well).

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  3. Rav Hamburger shlit"a points out that Rav Yaakov Emden z"l, when it came to halocho, lemyaseh, practically speaking, cited the old Ashkenaz way, that only one person says kaddish at a time. We need to give special weight to that, rather than ignoring it in favor of the other remark, which may have been just thinking out loud, reflecting thoughts at one time (which may have changed later), but were not a psak halacha (actual ruling).

    Additionally, it should be realized that Rav Yaakov Emden was a maverick, quite eclectic, and unusual Rabbi, who was exposed to Sephardic practice as his father was Rav in Amsterdam which had a large Sephardic community, etc. So he is not your typical Ashkenaz Rav.

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