Women and Kaddish

Judaism, Summer, 1995 by Joel B. Wolowelsky

and

looking into it, could find no reason beyond general policy, for forbidding

it.

I spoke to Aharon Lichtenstein [then Rosh Kollel at Yeshiva University and

now Rosh Yeshivat Har Etzion], who had the same reaction and said he would

ask the Rav [Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, his father-in-law], which he did

when

I was on the other end of the phone. [Rav Lichtenstein] put the question to

him,

and then was directed to ask me whether the girl was stationed in the ezrat

nashim. I, of course, answered in the affirmative, and the Rav then said that

of

course she could say Kaddish.

While European rabbis apparently did not insist on this, I suspect that the insistence by the American poskim that women stay in the ezrat nashim stemmed in no small part from their opposition to the mixed seating that was gaining hold in many American synagogues.

It is interesting to look at some of the contemporary arguments that have been used to justify restricting Kaddish to males. The late Israeli Chief Rabbi Ben-Zion Uziel(17) argues that the tradition of women not saying Kaddish is veiled in the secrets of the Kaddish itself, so "we should not initiate a new custom of daughters saying Kaddish." Nevertheless agreeing that"we should try to find a rationale", he offers the following argument:

The son is the continuation of the father's physical form; by his actions and

speech, and by taking his place in the community, he brings credit to his

father

in world of the souls....

The son does this, he continues, by saying Kaddish and performing mitzvot publicly in the presence of the community (tsibur), which according to halakha must consist of ten adult males.

And this can be accomplished only by the sons who qualify to establish the

Jewish eida, and not by the daughters, who therefore cannot say Kaddish in

the

tsibur.

The novel argument, which finds no echo in previous discussions, is less than overwhelming. Daughters saying Kaddish is not a new custom, having centuries of precedent -- albeit not universally accepted-behind it. According to many halakhists,(18) women can join with men to form a minyan when they have the same obligation in the mitzvah-and men and women are obligated in kiddush haShem. Even when they cannot form a tsibur, women are still part of one in which they are present. In reviewing -- and dismissing -- the arguments to the contrary, Rabbi Hayyim Hirschenson concludes that "there is simply no sustainable view that women are not called a kahal and eida."(19) If daughters are not part of the eida, neither are their mothers. Yet the son, whose Kaddish is to be part of his taking his father's place in the eida, says Kaddish for his mother. Clearly the argument is at best forced.

Rabbi Hayim David Halevi(20) concedes the halakhic legitimacy of daughters saying Kaddish, noting that there is nothing strange or incomprehensible about the practice. But he limits his own permission to a private service in the home attended by only a small group of family members. A daughter cannot say Kaddish in the synagogue, because "there are all sorts of people there, and her action might result in sexual arousal, if only slight. Even the graveside is inappropriate, as the presence of a large number of people makes her saying Kaddish immodest. A home service attended by the large number of people who pay a shiva visit is no different from a synagogue service, and "a mitzvah cannot be achieved by way of a sin." All of these concerns seem to be dismissed by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's remarks concerning saying birkhat hagomel in synagogue which we quoted above.