There are various kinds of Kaddish in the Jewish liturgy, including Half Kaddish, Full Kaddish and the Rabbinic Kaddish. This page refers only to the Mourner’s Kaddish.
Jump to text below
Yeynesn Felender’s Litvish mourner’s kaddish on youtube
Menke Katz’s kaddish
More transcriptions on the scale of formal to intimate in the Ashkenazic Hebrew Manual
Note: Version I is a “common denominator” compilation based on many interviews with elderly Litvaks over the last quarter century. But it is not monolithic. In deeper Litvak pronunciation, each [oy] is pronounced [ey] (except in the far west, Zámet, where it is [ou] or [eu]). In many authentic popular variants, stress is shifted to penultimate position in many more words than in this version and posttonic vowels are reduced to shewa; various specific words have local, stylistic and tradition-based variants within the Litvak area.
A second, rather deeper Litvak dialect version on the spectrum (but far from at its end) is Version II, provided below.
There are various Lithuanian misnagdic rabbinic (“Gaon of Vilna”) traditions in which the first two words have ey instead of a: Yisgadéyl v’yiskadéysh. At the other (“popular”) end of the spectrum, there are variants of these two words with (Yiddishized) penultimate stree: Yisgádal v’yiskádash, nowadays most evident in some Chabad communities.
After each Oméyn (‘Amen’), the assembled answer: Oméyn.
After the words Brikh hu in the text, the assembled answer in some traditions oméyn and in some traditions a repetition of Brikh hu.
During the Ten Days of Penitence, from Rosh Hashonna (Jewish New Year) through Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), the word L’éylo (L’eýle in the more Yiddishized variant II below) is followed by the added word ul’éylo, giving the phrase L’éylo ul’éylo (or: L’éyle ul’éyle, loosely translatable as ‘higher and higher’). In the tradition of Lithuanian Hasidism (nowadays principally Chabad-Lubavitch), L’éylo ul’éylo is used only during the N’eíle (Neilah) prayer at the end of Yom Kippur. Note however that like classic Sephardic traditions, Hasidim always add the phrase v’yatsmakh purkoney v’yikoreyv meshikhey (immediately following v’yamlikh malkhusey) and the phrase is followed by Oméyn. Misnagdic (non-Hasidic) Litvaks do not say this phrase or respond to it with Oméyn; they stand silently and respectfully for the brief moment of its insertion when visiting Chabad congregations.
In many traditions, the end of the mourner’s kaddish is followed by a second’s pause and then the words (said in Yiddish in pensive, wistful tone, not chanted, sometimes, when at graveside, moving one’s gaze from the grave to the assembled): Zol er undz zayn a gúter béter (‘May he be a good interceder [in Heaven] for us’) / Zol zi undz zayn a gúte béterke [/béterin] (‘May she be a good interceder for us’) / Zoln zey undz zayn gúte béter (‘May they be good interceders for us’).
April 2014 / late updated 7 May 2017 / by Dovid Katz
Yisgadál v’yiskadásh shméy rabó
B’olmó di vró khiruséy v’yamlíkh malkhuséy
B’khayeykhóyn uv’yoymeykhóyn uvkháyey d’khol Beys Yisroéyl
Boagoló uvizmán korív v’ímru: OMÉYN
Y’HÉY SHMÉY RÁBO MEVÓRAKH, L’ÓLAM UL’ÓLMEY OLMÁYO
●
Yisborákh v’yishtabákh v’yispoár v’yisroymám v’yisnaséy
V’yishadór v’yisalé v’yishalól shméy d’kudshó: BRIKH HU
●
L’éylo min kol birkhosó v’shirosó
Tushb’khosó v’nekhemosó, d’amíron b’ólmo v’ímru: OMÉYN
●
Y’héy shlómo rábo min shmáyo v’kháyim
Oléynu v’al kol Yisróyel v’ímru: OMÉYN
●
Óyse shóloym bimróymov, hu yaasé shóloym
Oléynu v’al kol Yisróyel v’ímru: OMÉYN
● ● ●
II
Yizgadál v’yiskadásh shméy rabó
B’ólmo di vró khirúsey v’yámlikh malkhúsey
B’khayéykhen uv’yoyméykhen uvkháyey d’khol Beys Yisró(e)l
Boagólo uvizmán kóriv v’ímru: OMÉYN
Y’HÉY SHMÉY RÁBO MEVÓRAKH, L’ÓLAM UL’ÓLMEY OLMÁYO
●
Yisbórakh v’yishtábakh v’yispóar v’yisréymem v’yisnáse
V’yishádor v’yisále v’yishálel shméy d’kúdsho: BRIKH HU
●
L’éylo min kol birkhóso v’shiróso
Tushb’khóso v’nekhemóso, d’amíron b’ólmo v’ímru: OMÉYN
●
Y’héy shlómo rábo min shmáyo v’kháyim
Oléynu v’al kol Yisró(e)l v’ímru: OMÉYN
●
Óyse shólem bimréymev, hú yáse shólem
Oléynu v’al kol Yisró(e)l v’ímru: OMÉYN
● ● ●