Mourner's Kaddish

The text is public domain and printed in every siddur, but we do not set it here: it is recited in Aramaic by the mourners, traditionally requires a minyan of ten, and the transliteration a family uses is their community’s. Ask the funeral home for transliteration cards, and ask a rabbi or cantor to lead it.

The Mourner’s Kaddish is written in Aramaic and, notably, does not mention death at all; it praises God. Kaddish is traditionally recited only with a minyan, a quorum of ten adult Jews, and in most communities a child says it for eleven months after the death of a parent.

The Kaddish is a prayer of praise. It asks that God’s great name be magnified and made holy in the world, that God’s kingdom come within the lifetimes of the people standing there, and it ends with a prayer for peace. The mourners say it, and the congregation answers at fixed points with “Amen” and “May His great name be blessed forever.” The power of it at a funeral comes from that refusal to mention death: at the moment of loss, the people who loved the person stand up and say that God is still to be praised. Many families find that the hardest and most important thing they do all day.

Led by the mourners, needs a minyan. Not yours to lead — arrange it. Read at a funeral or memorial service. Themes: kaddish · praise not grief · the mourners · minyan.

Any Jewish funeral, burial or memorial where the family will say it, which is nearly all of them. Even families with little observance tend to want Kaddish said, and some will want a transliteration so that everyone can follow. It is not a reading to include at a non-Jewish service, and it is never something the officiant says on the family’s behalf without being asked.

At the graveside, after the burial and usually after El Malei Rachamim. In a chapel service it may also close the service. The mourners stand, and anyone else in the room who knows it may join in. Whoever is leading announces it, and then the mourners lead the words themselves.

Allow about a minute and a half at a ceremony pace of about 130 words a minute, from the reader’s first word to their last.

• Confirm with the family and the funeral home that there will be ten adults present if the family keeps that requirement. If there may not be, raise it early; it changes who needs to come.
• Ask the funeral home for transliteration cards, and have them handed out before the burial, not during it.
• Your only line is the introduction: “The mourners will now rise for the Kaddish.” Then wait, and let them set the pace.

All funeral readings →