Like this sheet? You may also be interested in Further Thoughts on the Mourner's Kaddish: An Honor Bestowed on Those Broken Amongst Us.
ואלא עלמא אמאי קא מקיים אקדושה דסידרא ואיהא שמיה רבא דאגדתא שנא' (איוב י, כב) ארץ עפתה כמו אופל צלמות ולא סדרים הא יש סדרים תופיע מאופל
The Gemara poses a question: But if everything is deteriorating, why does the world continue to exist? The Gemara answers: By the sanctification that is said in the order of prayers, after the passage that begins: And a redeemer shall come to Israel, which includes the recitation and translation of the sanctification said by the angels, and by the response: Let God's great name be blessed, etc., which is recited after the study of aggada. As it is stated: “A land of thick darkness, as darkness itself; a land of the shadow of death, without any order” (Job 10:22). Therefore, it can be inferred from this verse that if there are orders of prayer and study, the land shall appear from amidst the darkness.
אריב"ל כל העונה אמן יהא שמיה רבא מברך בכל כחו קורעין לו גזר דינו שנאמר (שופטים ה, ב) בפרוע פרעות בישראל בהתנדב עם ברכו ה' מ"ט בפרוע פרעות משום דברכו ה' רבי חייא בר אבא א"ר יוחנן אפילו יש בו שמץ של עבודה זרה מוחלין לו כתיב הכא בפרוע פרעות וכתיב התם (שמות לב, כה) כי פרוע הוא אמר ריש לקיש כל העונה אמן בכל כחו פותחין לו שערי ג"ע שנאמר (ישעיהו כו, ב) פתחו שערים ויבא גוי צדיק שומר אמונים אל תיקרי שומר אמונים אלא שאומרים אמן מאי אמן א"ר חנינא אל מלך נאמן
Apropos the reward for honoring Shabbat, the Gemara cites statements about the reward for answering amen. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said that anyone who answers: Amen, may God's great name be blessed, wholeheartedly, with all one's might, they rip their sentence, as it is stated: “When punishments are annulled in Israel, when the people offer themselves, bless the Lord” (Judges 5:2). What is the reason for when punishments are annulled? Because the Jewish people blessed God. When one recites: Amen, may God's great name be blessed, and blesses God, their punishment is annulled. Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Even if one has within them a trace of idolatry, when they answers amen they are forgiven. It is written here, in the verse above: “When punishments [pera’ot] are annulled.” And it is written there, with regard to the sin of the Golden Calf: “And Moses saw that the nation was wild [paru’a], for Aaron had let them loose for anyone who might rise against them” (Exodus 32:25). Even one with the wildness of idolatry is forgiven. Reish Lakish said: One who answers amen with all one's strength, they open the gates of the Garden of Eden before them, as it is stated: “Open the gates, and a righteous nation shall come who keeps the faith” (Isaiah 26:2). Do not read: Who keeps [shomer] the faith [emunim], but rather: Who say [she’omerim] amen. What is the allusion of the word amen? Rabbi Ḥanina said: It is an acronym of the words: God, faithful King [El Melekh ne’eman].
(ד) אמר ר׳ ישמעאל סח לי ססנגיר שר הפנים: ידידי, שב בחיקי ואגיד לך מה תהא לישראל. ישבתי בחיקו והיה מסתכל בי ובוכה והיו דמעות זולגות מעיניו ויורדות עלי. אמרתי לו, הדר זיווי, מפני מה אתה בוכה? אמר לי, בוא ואכניסך ואודיעך מה נגנזו להם לישראל עם קדושים. תפשני בידי והכניסני לחדרי חדרים ולגנזי גנזים ולאוצרות. נטל הפנקסין ופתח והראני כתובות מצרות משונות זו מזו. אמרתי לו, הדר זיווי, הללו למי? אמר לי, לישראל. אמרתי לו, ויכולין ישראל לעמוד בהן? אמר לי, בוא למחר ואראך צרות משונות מן הראשונות, למחר הכניסני לחדרי חדרים והראני אשר לשבי לשבי, ואשר לרעב לרעב, ואשר לבזה לבזה. אמרתי לו, וכי ישראל לבד חטאו? אמר לי, בכל יום מתחדשות עליהם גזרות קשות מאלו, וכיון שישראל נכנסין לבתי כנסיות ולבתי מדרשות ועונין אמן יהא שמיה רבא מבורך לעלם ולעלמי עלמיא, אין מניחין אותן לצאת מחדרי חדרים. מי לא יאדיר למלך האדיר, מי לא יברך למלך המבורך, מי לא ירומם למלך המרומם, מי לא יהדר למלך המהודר, מי לא ימליך למלך המלכים, מי לא ישבח למלך המשובח, מי לא יקדיש למלך המקודש, יתקדש שמו לעד ולנצח, שבכל יום גבורות ונפלאות מתרגשות מלפני הקב״ה מעולות ומשונות זו מזו, ושמח בנו בעת תפלת בניו. הא למדת כמה גדול כח הקדיש שמעכב הצרות ומשמח הקב״ה.
Rabbi Yishmael said, Sasnegir Sar HaPanim conversed with me: my beloved, sit in my lap and I will tell you what will occur to Israel. I sat on his lap and he looked at me and cried, tears flowing from his eyes and falling upon me. I said to him, my splendid radiance, why are your crying? He said to me, come and I will bring you in and let you know what is decreed for Israel, the nation of holy people. He took me by the hand and brought me into the into the room of rooms, the most hidden places and the treasure houses. He took his journal, opened it and showed me writings about the afflictions, each different from the other. I said to him, my splendid radiance, whose are these? And he said to me: Israel’s. I asked him, can Israel withstand them? He said to me, come tomorrow and I will show you miseries different from the first ones. The next day he brought me into the room within rooms and showed me those taken captive, those starving, those pillaged. I said to him, has only Israel sinned? He said to me, every day the harsh decrees are renewed upon them But, since Israel enters the synagogues and houses of study, and answer “amen, yehei Shemei Raba mevorakh l’olam u’lolmei almaya/ amen, let the Great Name be blessed for ever and throughout eternity" they [the harsh decrees] are not allowed to leave the inner chamber [SLS: i.e., the judgments and decrees are trapped there in potential form and are thus not actualized in the lives of Israel].
Who does not glorify the glorious King, who does not bless the Blessed King, who does not extol the Exalted King, who does not honor the Splendid King, who does not enthrone the King of Kings, who does not praise the Praiseworthy King, who does not sanctify the Holy King, may He be sanctified forever and for eternity? For, every day judgments and wonders are activated before the Holy One, each superior and different than the other, and God delights in us at the time of his children’s prayers. This teaches us how great is the power of the kaddish that prevents afflictions and gladdens the Holy One.
Machzor Vitry
A tale of Rabbi Akiva: he was walking in a cemetery by the side of the road and encounter in there a naked man, black as coal, carrying a large burden of wood on his head. He seemed to be alive and was running under the load like a horse. Rabbi Akiva ordered him to stop. “How come you are doing such hard work? If you are a servant and your master is doing this to you then I'll redeem you from him. If you're poor then I'll give you money.” “Please, sir,” that man replied, “do not prevent me, because my superiors who will be angry.” “Who are you? Rabbi Akiva asked, “and what have you done?” The man said, “the man whom you're addressing is a dead man. Every day they send me out to chop wood and they use it to burn me up.” Rabbi Akiva said to him: “My son, what was your work in the world from which you came?” “I was a tax collector and a leader of the people, I showed favor to the rich and killed the poor, and more, I transgressed many serious trangressions.” He said to him: “Have you heard nothing from your superiors about how you may relieve your condition?” “Please, sir, do not detain me, for you will irritate my tormentors. For such a man as I, there can be no relief. Though I did hear them said something – but no, it is impossible. They said that if this poor man had a son, and his son were to stand before the congregation and recite the prayer ‘Bless the Lord who is to be blessed’ and the congregation were to answer ‘amen’, and his son were also to say the kaddish and they answer ‘May God's great name be blessed’, they would release him from his punishment. But this man does not know if he had a son. He left his wife pregnant and he did not know whether the child was a boy, and even if she gave birth to a boy, who would teach the boy Torah? For this man does not have a friend in the world.” Immediately Rabbi Akiva took upon himself the task of discovering whether this man had fathered a son, so that he might teach the son Torah, and install him at the head of the congregation to lead prayers. “What is your name?” he asked. “Akiva,” the man answered. “And what is the name of your wife?” Shoshniva.” “And the name of your town?” “Lodkyia.” Rabbi Akiva was deeply troubled by all this and went to make his inquiries. When he came to that town, he asked about the man he had met, and the townspeople replied: “May his bones be ground to dust!” He asked about the man's wife, and he was told: “May her memory be erased around the world!” He asked about the man's son and he was told: “He is an arel – even they did not bother to circumcise him!” Rabbi Akiva promptly took him, circumcised him and sat him down [to teach him]. But the boy refused to receive Torah. Rabbi Akiva fasted for 40 days. Then a heavenly voice was heard to say: “For these you mortify yourself?” “But Lord of the universe,” Rabbi Akiva replied, “it is for You that I am preparing him!” Suddenly the Holy One Blessed Be opened the boy's heart. Rabbi Akiva thaught him Torah and the reading of the Shema, the 18 blessings, and the benediction after meals. He presented the boy to the congregation and the boy recited the prayer ‘Bless the Lord who to be blessed’ and they answered ‘May the great name be blessed’. And he said the kaddish, and they answered "May God'st great name be blessed'. And after that he taught him mishnah and Talmud, laws and aggadot, until he got very wise, and he is Rabi Nachum HaPakuli, - and how many sages came from him!) At that very minute the man was released from his punishment. The man immediately came to Rabbi Akiva in a dream, and said: “May it be the will of the Lord that your soul find delight in the Garden of Eden, for you would have saved me from the sentence of Gehenna. When you made my son enter the house of gathering/synagogue, and he said the kaddish, my terrible sentence was ripped up. And when you made him enter the house of study, all my judgments were cancelled. And when he became wise and was called 'my teacher' my seat was put in Gan Eden with the righteous and pious ones, and they crowned me with many crowns. And all this was through your merit”. Rabbi Akiva opened his discourse with: “Your name, oh Lord, endures forever, and the memory of You through the generations!” (Ps. 135:13) For this reason it became customary in the evening prayers on the night after Shabbat are led by a man who does not have a father or a mother, so that he say can say Kaddish and say “Bless the Lord who is to be blessed.”
הגה: וכשהבן מתפלל ומקדש ברבים פודה אביו ואמו מן הגיהנם
The ReMA's gloss explaining Askenazi minhag: And when the son prays and sanctifies (says Kaddish) in public, he redeems his father and mother from Geihenom.
Below you will find several different versions of the Kaddish written by members of the Kibbutz movement in Israel. All of these texts have been sourced from: Rabbi Dalia Marx presents "Kaddish from the Rhine Valley to the Jezreel Valley: Crisis and Creativity." and at Michael Meyer and David A. Myers (Eds.), Between Tradition and Modernity: Rethinking Old Opposition, Essays in Honor of David Ellenson, Detroit 2014, pp. 123-141.
The following poem is by Shalom Yosef Shapira
The following interpretive Mourner's Kaddish was written by Zvi She'er
The following interpretive Mourner's Kaddish was written by Eli Alon
The following interpretive Mourner's Kaddish was written by Shalom Smid
The following interpretive Mourner's Kaddish was written by Oved Sadeh
(א) קדיש יתום: אבל: יִתְגַּדַּל וְיִתְקַדַּשׁ שְׁמֵהּ רַבָּא. [קהל: אמן] בְּעָלְמָא דִּי בְרָא כִרְעוּתֵהּ וְיַמְלִיךְ מַלְכוּתֵהּ בְּחַיֵּיכון וּבְיומֵיכון וּבְחַיֵּי דְכָל בֵּית יִשרָאֵל בַּעֲגָלָא וּבִזְמַן קָרִיב, וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן: [קהל: אמן] קהל ואבל: יְהֵא שְׁמֵהּ רַבָּא מְבָרַךְ לְעָלַם וּלְעָלְמֵי עָלְמַיָּא: אבל: יִתְבָּרַךְ וְיִשְׁתַּבַּח וְיִתְפָּאַר וְיִתְרומַם וְיִתְנַשּא וְיִתְהַדָּר וְיִתְעַלֶּה וְיִתְהַלָּל שְׁמֵהּ דְּקֻדְשָׁא. בְּרִיךְ הוּא. [קהל: בריך הוא:] לְעֵלָּא מִן כָּל בִּרְכָתָא בעשי”ת: לְעֵלָּא לְעֵלָּא מִכָּל וְשִׁירָתָא תֻּשְׁבְּחָתָא וְנֶחֱמָתָא דַּאֲמִירָן בְּעָלְמָא. וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן: [קהל: אמן] יְהֵא שְׁלָמָא רַבָּא מִן שְׁמַיָּא וְחַיִּים עָלֵינוּ וְעַל כָּל יִשרָאֵל. וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן: [קהל: אמן] עושה שָׁלום בעשי”ת: הַשָּׁלום בִּמְרומָיו הוּא יַעֲשה שָׁלום עָלֵינוּ וְעַל כָּל יִשרָאֵל וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן: [קהל: אמן]