Reciting KaddishElevation of the Soulvalue of reciting KaddishYalkut Yosef, Laws of Mourning, Siman 30, Se'if 1gatherer of woodHaftaraKolbo, siman 114Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, ZT"Lthe woman that financed reciting Kaddishthe deceased father of the bank manager+12
It is customary to recite Kaddish for father and mother because the son is able to merit his father and mother after their death, for he is considered as part of them since they gave birth to him, and this custom has spread in all the dispersions of Israel and its foundation is in holiness.
Reciting Kaddish for the Elevation of the Soul
It is customary to recite Kaddish for father and mother because the son is able to merit his father and mother after their death, for he is considered as part of them since they gave birth to him, and this custom has spread in all the dispersions of Israel and its foundation is in holiness.
2 Kislev 5785 Dec 3 2024
The value of reciting Kaddish.
Yalkut Yosef, Laws of Mourning, Siman 30, Se'if 1
One who recites Kaddish for the elevation of the soul of the deceased parents, its foundation is in the mountains of holiness, in the midrashim of our Sages of blessed memory, that there are in this many benefits for the soul of the deceased, and even if he is a completely righteous person, to raise him from level to level in the Garden of Eden. Therefore, even on Sabbaths and festivals one must recite Kaddish. And all the more so Kaddish after the study of Torah and after the Derasha (Torah Lecture), for there is in it great satisfaction to the deceased.And the recitation of Kaddish is included in the obligation to honor his father and his mother after their passing, and in every year on the days of the yahrzeit [anniversary of death]. And this is included in honoring father and mother as they said: "One honors him in his life and in his death." And the matter of honor after death is to elevate the honor of his father, such as calling him "Abba Mari" [my father, my master/teacher], and to cause him satisfaction after his passing, by the recitation of Kaddish, the lighting of a memorial candle, and the arrangement of a memorial [azkara] on the day of the yahrzeit, being called up to the Torah on the day of the yahrzeit, and the like.
The incident involving the gatherer of wood
Kolbo, siman 114
"Once a certain rabbi met a deceased person gathering thorns and carrying them on his shoulders. He said to him, 'My son, for what are you doing all this?' He said to me, 'Rabbi, know that my judgment is continuous, for all the days, that they may bring the fire of Gehenom to burn me.' I said to him, 'And is there no one that can save you from this great distress?' He responded, 'there is no one that can save, unless my son says Kaddish or reads the Haftara, in honor of Hashem, on my account. And if he does this I know his merit will stand for me and protect me. And that particular Rabbi went and told the son of the deceased and he did in accordance to all that he said. After some time, the deceased was revealed to the Rabbi and said to him, 'let your mind be at peace, for you have brought relief to my mind.'"
Story from Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, ZT"L
In the book Ish Al HaChoma — the biography of the life of Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, ZT"L (Vol. 1, p. 345) an awesome story is told about the importance of Kaddish:A respectable woman and owner of an established business in Pressburg was accustomed for many long years to bring from time to time a donation to the yeshiva, on condition that they would recite a permanent Kaddish in the yeshiva for the elevation of those forgotten souls who have no one to recite Kaddish after them. And the yeshiva indeed appointed a special young man who would recite Kaddish for the benefit of those souls. In time, her husband passed away to his world, and since he managed the business together with her, his passing affected the business which gradually shrank until it closed entirely. The woman's financial situation worsened, and over the days an additional burden fell upon her.When her two daughters reached their time [marriageable age] and it was necessary to marry them off, the woman bore her suffering in silence, and accepted the judgment upon herself with courage, and reconciled with her fate. However, on one matter she could not forgo, and her heart was very bitter about it and pained her greatly: and that is the matter of the Kaddish which might be canceled after she stopped her allocation for this purpose. In the bitterness of her soul, she went up to the administration of the yeshiva and presented her request, that the yeshiva should continue also from now on the recitation of Kaddish for the elevation of the souls of the forgotten ones, until Hashem 'expands her border' and she returns to supporting the yeshiva as before.The heads of the yeshiva were moved by the purity of her heart and the righteousness of her soul, and they promised to fulfill her request, and to keep the recitation of Kaddish as it was until now. This promise filled her soul with endless happiness, and with a spark of happiness shining from her grieving eyes, she parted from the heads of the yeshiva and turned to go on her way. From now on, her own situation no longer pressed upon her so much, and even the situation of her two daughters who had long reached marriageable age. For from the moment that the matter of Kaddish for the forgotten souls was assured to her, she lacked almost nothing in the world of the Holy One, Blessed be He. And regarding her two daughters, she placed her trust in Hashem — "Father of orphans and Judge of widows" — and He, the Merciful and Gracious, would surely see to the matter of her two daughters and arrange for them their matches and all their needs.As she went out into the street, an elderly Jewish man of rare and majestic countenance approached her, with a beard as pure as snow flowing down according to his stature, and greeted her with peace. The woman was surprised by the cordial and warm welcome of the old man, who was unfamiliar to her, and her surprise grew sevenfold when the old man drew near to her and engaged her in conversation, showing interest in her situation and the situation of her daughters. The woman sighed deeply, and laid out before him her bitter fate, and her fall from a high roof to a deep pit, to the point that she lacked the essential means to marry off her grown daughters. "What is the estimated amount you require for the wedding expenses of your daughters?" asked the old man. "For what purpose is it important for your honor to know?" the woman replied in astonishment, and specified an estimated amount. The old man pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote an order to the local bank to pay the woman the sum she had specified. However, before placing his signature, he expressed his wish that since it was a very serious sum, it would be desirable for his signature to be made in the presence of witnesses, who would see with their own eyes as he personally signed the check, and would confirm it with their own signature. Moved and surprised by what had transpired, she went up to the study hall of the Yeshiva, and requested two young men to accompany her.
When the old man saw them, he suggested that they observe how he signs his signature on the payment order, and for greater security, he asked them for a piece of paper, and recorded on it his signature on the respectable payment order to the woman, and instructed her to go and redeem the check tomorrow morning. The whole matter seemed baffling and strange to the stunned woman—what did the unfamiliar old man see in her to show such a broad heart, to the extent of covering the wedding expenses of her two daughters. Nevertheless, the next day she hurried to turn to the bank, and with a beating heart, she tried her luck. When the bank teller examined the check, he looked at the woman with a wandering gaze, looking once and twice, entirely bewildered and astonished; expressing signs of uneasiness, he asked the woman to wait, and he entered with the check to the bank manager, who was also its owner.
And here a most tumultuous event occurred. When the bank manager saw the check—he collapsed from his chair and fainted; a commotion arose in the bank. The clerks who heard about what was happening immediately brought the woman into a side room and placed a guard over her so she would not slip away, suspecting that there was a matter of fraud involved here. After the bank manager regained his composure, he asked to see the woman who had submitted the check for payment. Upon her entry, he asked hurriedly, when and how she had received the check. "Just yesterday I received it from an honorable Jewish man of majestic countenance, and there are even two Yeshiva students who can serve as witnesses, who saw how the writer of the order signed the check," the woman answered, as if apologizing.
"Would you be able to identify the man if I showed him to you in a picture?" the manager asked. "I will certainly identify him, and I have no doubt that the two young men will also be able to identify him," she answered. The manager ordered that the portrait of his deceased father be brought before him, and when the picture was presented to the woman, she pointed to him without hesitation as the man who had given her the check.
Immediately, the manager ordered that the check be cashed, and sent the woman on her way. After the woman had left, the manager told those present that the man who had delivered the check to the woman was none other than his father, who had passed away ten years prior. The previous night, his father had appeared in a dream and spoke to him in these exact words: "Know that ever since you strayed from the straight path, married a foreign woman, and stopped saying Kaddish for me, my soul found no rest—until a certain woman came and ordered that Kaddish be said for souls that have no one to say Kaddish after them. And this Kaddish, which the Yeshiva students recited by the woman's order, caused an elevation and contentment for my soul. Therefore, now listen to my voice: this woman will appear tomorrow at your bank with a check I delivered to her to cover the wedding expenses of her two daughters, and you must cash the entire check." "When I woke up in the morning deeply moved by the dream," the manager concluded, "I told my wife about the dream, but she, for her part, mocked my dreams; however, once the woman appeared with the check, I understood that the dream was indeed true." Our teacher Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld concluded his story and said: "And who were the two young men? Myself and my companion Rabbi Yehuda Greenwald. And that bank manager eventually became a complete penitent, his wife converted according to the law, and they merited to establish a faithful home in Israel."
A Story from the Holy Zohar
Zohar Chadash, end of Parashat Acharei Mot
And come and see, a certain man was walking to the mountains of Ararat, he and two others with him, and he saw a pit of fire clefts, and smoke rising from the pit. And he heard a certain man saying, "Woe, woe." He said, "Certainly, this is one of the locations of Gehenom (Purgatory/Hell) here."
He fell asleep and saw in his dream a certain man, with a large bundle of thorns upon his shoulders, and two appointees from Gehenom putting fire beneath the bundle of thorns, and it was burned, and he was crying out. And two holy angels, messengers from the Judge Above who judges him, were saying to him: "You abandoned the Holy One, Blessed be He, and His angels, who were guarding you in this world and in the world to come, and you did the will of the thorns, which are the wicked, who are from the side of Samael and the serpent. The thorns shall burn you."
He said to that wicked one of Gehenom: "Who are you?" He said: "Certainly I am a wicked Jew, and the appointees of Gehenom do not mention my name to me. And three times they judge me by day, and twice by night." He said to him: "Do you know the name of your place?" He said to him: "[It is called] The Upper Galilee. And did you leave a son in the world?"
He said, "A child I left behind. And I was a butcher. And from the many evils that I committed at first, they would judge me by my mouth, and by my feet, and by my hands. And the angel who is appointed over the graves says to me at the time they judge me, 'Woe to him who swore to fulfill the Torah, and swore falsely. Woe to the skull that never donned tefillin in its life. And woe to hands that served the vanities of the world. And woe to feet that walked in the vanities of the world.'"
At the time they were striking me with lashes of rebellion, I stated everything that I had done. And my soul came, along with the angel who was appointed over my soul, and they presented a document detailing everything that I had done. And my soul gave testimony together with the angel, and they said (Deuteronomy 17), "By the mouth of two witnesses or three witnesses shall the one worthy of death be put to death." And concerning this (Micah 7), "From her who lies in your bosom, guard the doors of your mouth." And who is she? This is the soul, for she testifies against a person at the time of their death.
That man awoke from his sleep, went to the Upper Galilee, and said to a certain man, "Have you seen the child who is the son of the butcher, who died at such-and-such a time?" He said to him, "This child whom you are asking about, he goes to the slaughterhouse, and he is wicked like his father; may such-and-such happen to him, and to his father, and to the nurse who nursed him." He went to a certain house of study, and heard a child who was reciting, (Proverbs 2) "If you seek her as silver, etc."
He went to the slaughterhouse, and saw the child who was playing with the youths in the slaughterhouse. He said to him, "My son, come with me." And he went with him, and he clothed him, and placed him with a certain teacher who taught him Torah, until the boy grew up and read [Scripture]. And he arranged for him to recite the Haftarah in the synagogue, and he arranged for him to lead the prayers. Until he read [Scripture] and Mishnah [alt. trans. repeated it] and became exceedingly wise, until they called him Rabbi.
That deceased man who was the father of the child, whom they used to judge, came in a dream to this wise man and said to him: "Rabbi, just as you have comforted me, may the Holy One, Blessed be He, comfort you. At the hour when my son recited the Haftarah in the congregation, they released me from judgment. At the hour when he passed before [the ark] for prayer and said Kaddish, they tore up my sentence completely. And at the hour when he became wise, they gave me a portion in the Garden of Eden, and this is the portion of which they say, 'a portion in the World to Come'—the portion that every single righteous person has for himself—and they brought me in with the righteous into their academy."
And at the hour when he became even wiser, and they called him Rabbi, they crowned me with a crown with which the righteous are crowned. And they gave me food and drink from that which [souls] enjoy from the splendor of the Divine Presence. And this is what they say: "The righteous sit with their crowns on their heads and enjoy the splendor of the Divine Presence." And any man who enjoys the splendor of the Divine Presence, it is as though he ate and drank. And because of you, Rabbi, I have merited all this honor. Fortunate is your portion, for because of this you shall have a high and abundant portion in this world and in the World to Come. And fortunate is he who merits to leave a son behind in the world.
It is possible to appoint an agent who is a Torah scholar from Nahar Shalom, the yeshiva of the Kabbalists, who will recite Kaddish for the elevation of the soul of those that are dear to you.
For those who live outside of Israel, who wish to provide a name or names for Kaddish and for inquiries about the amount of the donation for Kaddish please send an email to our Jerusalem Office m622560@gmail.com or call our Nahar Shalom Yeshiva of the Kabbalists at 972-2-6249000 or 972-622-3001 Whatsapp 972-523325778
When calling within Israel 02—6249000 or 02-622-3001 & Whatsapp 0523325778
