Kaddish or Qaddish or Qadish is a hymn praising God that is recited during Jewish prayer services.
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The central theme of the Kaddish is the magnification and sanctification of God's name.
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Term Kaddish is often used to refer specifically to "The Mourner's Kaddish, " which is chanted as part of the mourning rituals in Judaism in all prayer services, as well as at funerals and memorials; for 11 Hebrew months after the death of a parent; and in some communities for 30 days after the death of a spouse, sibling, or child.
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Mourners recite Kaddish to show that despite the loss they still praise God.
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Kaddish was not always recited by mourners and instead became a prayer for mourners sometime between the 12th and 13th centuries when it started to be associated with a medieval legend about Rabbi Akiva who meets a dead man seeking redemption in the afterlife.
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Mourner's Kaddish is said in most communities at all prayer services and certain other occasions.
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In most communities, Kaddish is recited eleven months after the death of a parent, and then at every anniversary of the death.
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Technically, there is no obligation to recite Kaddish for other relatives, even though there is an obligation to mourn for them.
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Some synagogues, especially Orthodox and Conservative ones, multiply the number of times that the Mourner's Kaddish is recited, for example by reciting a separate Mourner's Kaddish after both Aleinu and then each closing Psalm.
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The Mourner's Kaddish can be more accurately represented as an expression of "justification for judgment" by the mourners on their loved ones' behalf.
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Rabbi Yair Bacharach concluded that technically a woman can recite the Mourner's Kaddish, but concludes that since this is not the common practice, it should be discouraged.
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Nevertheless, Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik ruled that in our time, we should permit women to say Kaddish, and this is a common practice in Modern Orthodox circles.
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In Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist Judaism, the Mourner's Kaddish is traditionally said by women who are counted in the minyan.
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Kaddish has been a particularly common theme and reference point in the arts, including the following:.
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