Reciting Kaddish is Meritorious

b. Sotah 49a

R. Simeon ben Gamaliel says in the name of R. Joshua: From the day that the Temple was destroyed, there is no [day that does not include some form of curse]. [ . . . ] But [if everything is deteriorating,] why does the world [continue to] exist? By the sanctification [kedushah de-sidra’] that [is said in the] order [of prayers] and [by the response] “Let His great name [be blessed,” which is recited after the study] of aggadah.

b. Shabbat 119b

R. Joshua ben Levi said [that] anyone who answers, “Amen, may His great name be blessed,” [wholeheartedly,] with all his might, [they] rip his sentence, as it is stated: When punishments are annulled in Israel, when the people offer themselves, bless the Lord (Judges 5:2). What is the reason for when punishments are annulled? Because [the Jewish people] blessed God.

Translation adapted from the Noé Edition of the Koren Talmud Bavli.

Notes

Words in brackets appear in the original translation.

Credits

From Koren Talmud Bavli, Noé Edition, trans. Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz (Jerusalem: Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2019). Accessed via the William Davidson digital edition, sefaria.org. Adapted with permission of Koren Publishers Ltd.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.

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