Kaddish for Yizkor

1. The reasons to outlaw the  practice

Historically, Yizkor, the memorial service for the departed, like Kabbalat Shabbat, Hoshanah Rabbah, Simhat Torah, and piyyutim, religious poetry often reflecting Heichalot mysticisim, that are inserted into the formal liturgy, are post-Talmudic additions to the Orthodox Jewish liturgy. While Kabbalat Shabbat by convention does generate a mourner’s Kaddish, this convention  has  not been extended  to Yizkor prayers.

“Traditionally,” by which we mean doing things the way we are used to do them, Orthodox communities have not concluded Yizkor with a Kaddish. The practice of allowing a Yizkor Kaddish is an invention of non-Orthodox streams, and should be avoided in order not to legitimate heresy. Those who are theologically unacceptable may not be seen as a source of normative Orthodox behavior.

We also have a tradition not to make extra Kaddish recitals,¹ and adding a superfluous Kaddish at  the end of Yizkor is wrongly conceived, a gratuitous break with “Tradition,” a contrived concession to non-Orthodox participants in the Orthodox synagogue who, by their presence, dilute the intensity and sanctity of the sacred community, and enhance the misapprehension that a “Kaddish cult” is consistent with Orthodox Judaism.

2. The reasons to permit the practice

Yizkor itself is  a problematic rite. It is a post-Talmudic innovation. Sefardim fo not say Yizkor altogether, because performing mournful rites on Holy Days is Halakhically wrong. The Yizkor  liturgy includes the E-l Maleh Rahamim memorial prayer, which [a] is not said on days when tahnanun, or penitential prayers, are not said, [b]  yet Yizkor is recited on Shemini  ‘Atseret, the season of our joy, the last day of Passover, the one and only day in the entire day of the month of Nisan on which E-l Maleh Rahamim by convention according to the Ashkenazi rite, may be recited. When calling attention to this anomaly, I was challenged, “are you challenging Tradition,” I answered. “No, I am trying to restore it.” “Tradition” is not what  Orthodox Jews happen to do; it is what Orthodox Jews ought to do.

A Kaddish is often recited at graveside, in spite of the prohibition of praying in the vicinity of the deceased.² Many people conclude Birchat ha-Hodesh, also called Kiddush Levana, with Aleinu and Kaddish. As noted above, Kabbalat Shabbat generates a Kaddish.

The concern for excessive Kaddish recital is an issue. Reading the mourner’s Psalm 49, the Elul to Sukkot Psalm 27, the New Moon Psalm 104, and the optional piyyut an’im zemirot, result in redundant recitations when they occur on Shabbat.

If the Ashkenazi “Tradition” can allow for a Yizkor rite in the first place, it can allow for a single Kaddish at Yizkor’s conclusion.

3. A modern Orthodox answer to a current question

1. In Jewish law, innovation, when appropriate, is not forbidden. Only acts that are explicitly forbidden are forbidden. The Mishnah at Eduyyot 2:2 proclaims that “not seeing an act being done does not mean the act may not be done.
2. Ashkenazi Yizkor should be modified in tone not to be a sad experience.  We really are not supposed to mourn on Holy Days. Rather, Ashkenazi Jews who revere the Yizkor moment should be encouraged to celebrate the lives of those no longer with us.
3. Just as the Jewry of Crusader times had the right to invent Yizkor, a deflection from antecedent usage,  and the Safed mystics had the right to invent Kabbalat Shabbat, with its attending Kaddish, today’s Jewry have a right, because it is not Talmudically wrong, to allow the liturgical amendment called Yizkor.
4. The fact that the Yizkor Kaddish has roots in non-Orthodoxy is should be Halakhically irrelevant. Conservative rabbis do not determine Orthodox practice. Jewish Orthodoxy is defined by what Torah positively requires, not by presenting itself as the mirror negative its opponents. Truth is measured by its merits, not by the person who makes the claim.
5. The legal rule is that one does not marbeh be-Kaddishim, which would not forbid one single Kaddish.
6. By Oral Torah law women are permitted, although not required, to lean on her sacrifice, for the good feeling of ritual participation. Therefore, by Oral Torah law, women may perform any act that by law they are not forbidden to do, and as long as act is not forbidden, if the community consents, that act may be considered by community modern Orthodox rabbis.
7. By the same logic, this minor addition, not without precedent, could and perhaps should be considered at the local rabbi’s discretion and the community’s consent, and could allow a Kaddish for Yizkor.