384 A History of Judaism
there are other mourners, it is customary that within the seven days of
their mourning, they take precedence and he has no rights [regarding] the
kaddish at all ... If there is no one present in the synagogue who is in
mourning for one’s father or mother, that kaddish may be recited by one
who has no father and mother on behalf of all the dead of Israel. There are
localities where it is customary that other near- of- kin recite kaddish for
their relations where [the latter leave] no parental mourners ... In this
entire [matter] we follow the accepted custom, provided the custom is
fixed in the [particular] city.^8
In due course the mourner’s Kaddish was also to become an integral
part of Sephardi culture, along with yahrzeit, observance of the anniver-
sary of the death of a relative for whom mourning is required by the
lighting of a candle and a role in the public liturgy in the synagogue.
Praying for departed close relatives and giving charity on their behalf
became a popular custom both in Ashkenazi ritual, where the prayer
which opens with Yizkor, ‘may he remember’, is recited on the three pil-
grimage festivals and the Day of Atonement, and in Sephardi synagogues,
where each person called to the Torah may recite, or listen to, a memor-
ial prayer for his relatives. The practice was not uncontroversial – in the
tenth century, Hai Gaon had specifically opposed it on the grounds that
such prayers are valueless since God only takes into account the deeds
of an individual in his lifetime – but the offering of memorial prayers,
with charitable offerings ‘for the repose of the departed souls’, became
a popular practice, especially in Ashkenazi ritual, where a desire to com-
memorate martyrs in the Crusades and in the Polish massacres of the
seventeenth century led communities to keep death rolls (in Yiddish,
yizker‑ buch ) so that the names of those without living relatives would
also be included in the communal prayers. It is striking that this custom,
which came to hold great emotional significance for many ordinary
Jews within the synagogue liturgy, seems to have emerged without any
specific theological justification or discussion about the status of the
souls of the dead for whose benefit these prayers were said: ‘May God
remember the soul of ... who has gone on to his world, because (with-
out making a vow) I shall give charity on his behalf. As a reward for
this, may his soul be bound in the bond of life together with the souls of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and together with the other righteous men
and women in the Garden of Eden.’ The popularity of such mourning
customs almost certainly owes much to the Catholic Christian world
which surrounded Ashkenazi Jews.^9