Questions and Answers About Laws Concerning Mourning

A worshipper adds to the "who hears prayer" blessing whatever he wishes to say to God. If the ascent of their souls is an all-encompassing experience for you, you can certainly say it. If, however, you merely feel an obligation, and this is not an all-encompassing experience for you, it should not be said, because the "who hears prayer" blessing was not instituted for this purpose; there are other times and other prayers for the ascent of a soul. This also applies to a person who committed suicide.

It is possible to think about two deceased persons when reciting the same Kaddish prayer. Just as two people can be credited with the same mitzva, both the person who performed the mitzva and the person who caused it, and God does not deny a reward for any deed, the same applies to reciting Kaddish.

The Jerusalem Talmud (Bava Kamma 1:5), as quoted in Beit Yosef 5547, states, "He shall not arouse his dead" on a holiday, i.e. recall him among the dead, showing that the dead were recalled at these times. We also find in Midrash Tanchuma (He’ezinu 1), "It is customary to recall the dead on the Sabbath, so that they will not return to Gehinnom, because it is written in Taharat Cohanim, 'Atone Forgive Your people, Israel, whom You have redeemed' – this refers to the dead. It therefore follows that the living redeem the dead, and we therefore recall the dead on Yom Kippur and give tzedakah for them." It is stated in Shulchan Arukh 5621:6, "On Yom Kippur they vowed to give tzedakah on behalf of the dead and recall their souls, meaning that the dead are also forgiven on Yom Kippur." It is stated in the name of Mahariv (Rabbi Jacob Weil) that Yom Kippur is referred to as "Yom HaKippurim" in the plural because it applies to both the living and the dead. In addition to Yom Kippur, Yizkor is recited on Shmini Atzeret, on the last day of Passover, and on Shavuot – see Kitzur Shulchan Arukh 133:21. Recital of the Yizkor prayer is customary among Ashkenazi communities, but in Sephardic and North African communities there is no separate prayer; the ordinary Ashkava prayer is recited in full or in part according to the Arizal (Rabbi Isaac Luria), who said that it should not be prolonged – "The Merciful" should be recited. Sephardic communities do not recite Yizkor with some of the worshippers re gathered in the synagogue and others (whose parents are alive) outside the synagogue; Ashkava is recited at the request of the person called up to the Torah reading or a person praying for the ascent of the soul of his relative. When it is necessary in our generation to recite a special version of Ashkava for the ascent of the souls of the holy ones who fell in Israel's wars and the victims of terrorism, there is a specific prayer for this, and there is also a prayer instituted for the ascent of the souls of those murdered in the Holocaust. May the eternal rest of all of them be dignified, and may they be included in the resurrection of the deal.