[Avodah] Kaddish (was: Shabbas he mi lezok)

[Micha Berger]

In his work on Qaddish, R' de Sola Pool argues the reverse of what has
been suggested here.

He holds that Qaddish emerged from the practice of trying to end every
derashah with an aggadita about le'asid lavo. (Just as we do today,
where half of all derashos end "bimheirah beyameinu amein!") IOW, the
first role qaddish served, leshitaso, was that of Qaddish deRabbanan
(not meaning with the full QdR text initially, just used at that
time). The role of Qaddish yasom was initially -- to get aveilim into
shiurim! From that Qaddish expanded to marking the close of sections
of tefillah, not just learning.

(RDdSP also has some interesting ideas about the origins of Qaddish
among the Chaddisim haRishonim, before the split into Perushim and
Issiim, and part of a lineage that lehavdil elef alfei havdalos
mutated into the Xian Paternoster. Complete with historical examples
of the genre to make his argument.)

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha

-- 
Micha Berger             One who kills his inclination is as though he
micha at aishdas.org        brought an offering. But to bring an offering,
http://www.aishdas.org   you must know where to slaughter and what
Fax: (270) 514-1507      parts to offer.        - R' Simcha Zissel Ziv