[Avodah] The Singular Way Of Saying Kaddish

[Mandel, Seth]

Ben Waxman: < The minhag for hundreds of years has been for anyone to say kaddish, so I don't if you can say that the "correct way" is for one person only to say it.>
Please do not say "hundreds of years."  This is a (mistaken) custom that is less than 200 years old.  The Mishna Brurah does not mention it, and instead gives the rules for who says kaddish if there is more than one person, meaning that IF you went according to the MB (which no one does, of course), there would be only one person saying kaddish.

Saul Newman: <where will that  leave  the  small shul with multiple  kaddish sayers?>
Now that, of course, is the crux of the matter, and the reason why the (mistaken) custom of several people saying it arose.  For although most of the acharonim bring sets of rules (like the MB) for who gets to say the kaddish, the other avelim were not willing to give it up, just like you have quarrels about who will daven far'n omud.  Most rabbis wanted to avoid the quarrels, and so did not protest too much when several people said it together.  Originally they all said it in unison, and then even that was abandoned.  In many shuls, no one can halakhically say kaddish, which requires 9 people listening, and with many people saying, there may not be 9 listening to some or most of them.

Rabbi Seth Mandel