Stories of Kaddish around the world

Even Jews who may not keep many mitzvos or frequent a shul want to say Kaddish, but the meaning and the symbolism of the tefillah a mourner says three times a day for eleven months is often shrouded in confusion.

Rabbi Gedalia Zweig is determined to bring clarity and comfort to mourners straddling the interface between This World and the Next

It’s the mitzvah nobody wants to be in the position of doing, yet the one that requires full, daily commitment for eleven months. Saying Kaddish for a loved one is not a one-and-done, and for some mourners, it can be a heavy burden.

Eighteen years ago, Rabbi Gedalia Zweig of Toronto, Canada, entered the scene with his book Living Kaddish (Targum Press/Feldheim-distributed). A few weeks after his mother passed away, Rabbi Zweig was visiting Orlando with his family.

“I discovered that all minyans begin after Disneyworld closes for the day,” he says wryly. “I needed a minyan. I needed to recite Kaddish.”

He found his minyan in the end, but Rabbi Zweig had also uncovered an issue, a hole in the tapestry of Jewish life: The urgency of Kaddish wasn’t resonating with people. And that needed to change.

Rabbi Zweig sat down to write, and his book, which contains beautiful vignettes and anecdotes about this 11-month mitzvah, struck a chord. More than 5,000 copies of Living Kaddish were sold. The Jewish Russian Community Centre of Ontario had it translated to Russian and distributed 4,000 copies, and another 1,000 were printed in Spanish. Funeral homes stocked up, as did Chabad houses.

With time, Rabbi Zweig gained the reputation of a Kaddish expert who would travel to talk about this mitzvah.

“I’ll fly anywhere for a Shabbos, speak on the importance of Kaddish, and leave right afterward,” he says, remembering times he’s traveled to places as far as Barbados, Sweden, Mexico, and Curacao to lead minyanim, Kaddish, and programs.