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Rabbi Chaim Navon
Why is the Kaddish
in Aramaic?
I f I had written the Kaddish, I would
have written it in Hebrew. And if we want to translate and upgrade, Before Pesach, someone came over to
there are more deserving candidates, me in the street, shook my hand and
If I had written the Kaddish, I would like Kol Nidrei for example. Some asked me: “Rabbi, why do we still not
have added some moving words in praise have removed this Aramaic prayer but eat kitniyot (legumes) on Pesach? What
of the deceased and thoughts about the the Reform Movement recalled Kol logic is there to still keep this custom?”
meaning of life. Nidrei into their prayers, because they
If I had written the Kaddish, no one discovered that nothing can replace To which I answered: “Why did you just
would say it. the power of a page in an old machzor, shake my hand as a greeting? What logic
How do I know? Because people have soaked with the tears of generations is there to that custom?” Sheepishly he
tried. Reform Jews and secular Jews in gone by. replied, “It’s just what we do.” “Exactly!”
Israel have already written alternative Someone once asked my teacher Rabbi I said.
versions to the traditional Kaddish. For Amital about the claim that Rachel
example, “Kaddish Negba,” written by was not really buried in Rachel’s Tomb The Aramaic Kaddish is precious to us,
Shalom Smid, opens “May the name of (Kever Rachel). He answered: “Whether much more than kitniyot. Because it is
Man be glorified, may his life of action Rachel is buried there or not, Kever much older; because it was said in all
be exalted.” These versions are very Rachel has become sanctified through Jewish communities wherever they were;
current and ethically, politically and the tears of millions of Jewish mothers because it is inextricably bonded in our
gender-ly correct, but they don’t work. over many centuries.” conscience with the most meaningful
In almost all sectors, the traditional The Kaddish has become holy through moments and the most important people
Kaddish has been restored. many more tears. in our lives.
Rabbi Professor Yoel Elitzur recently We can also learn from the experiences
published a call to say the Kaddish in of others. In the 1960s, the Catholic So what is so precious about the
Hebrew. Not to change the content, Church in America decided to update Kaddish? Just one thing, but it’s the
just translate it. That is a problem too. its rituals. Among other things, they most important thing: this Kaddish is
After all, we already have some beautiful decided to hold Mass not only in the drenched with the tears of a hundred
Hebrew prayers that praise our G-d. incomprehensible traditional Latin generations. Perhaps it is halachically
Like Yishtabach for example. Yet our but in the local language too. The permitted to translate it into Hebrew;
incomprehensible Aramaic Kaddish Vatican hoped to make prayers more but so what? When my grandfather’s
wrenches hearts far more than the relevant to worshippers’ lives. However, grandfather died in Vishnitz, his son,
perfectly understood Yishtabach. Non- sociologists Roger Fink and Rodney the boy that would grow up to become
religious mourners throng to shuls to say Stark discovered that the experiment great-grandpa Menachem, said Kaddish
the Kaddish for their parents, not to say produced the opposite effect: a sharp over his grave. And when great-grandpa
Yishtabach, or even the Amidah. decline in the number of churchgoers. Menachem died, I heard his son, grandpa
Before the change, 75% of American Moshe, say the same Kaddish. It’s the
Catholics regularly attended services; Kaddish I said at my father’s grave, and
afterwards, only 45%. They didn’t want G-d willing, when my time comes, it is
any upgrades; they wanted to pray like the Kaddish my children will say for me
their ancestors had prayed. People do too.
not always look for the new and the
contemporary. (This article first appeared in Makor Rishon in
Hebrew.)
Rabbi Chaim Navon is a renowned
author and educator
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