[Avodah] Kaddish Yasom

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 11:09pm EDT, RnTK wrote:
: with their friends, "You can't say kaddish for your Ima or your Abba 
: today, someone else has kadima"? Correct me if I am mistaken but my impression
: is that kaddish yasom is really mainly for genuine yesomim, i.e., those who 
: lose their parents while they are still children.

Rather than correct you, let me provide a mar'eh maqom: Rama YD 376:4,
quoting the Mahariq. Both of us probably remembering R Michael Poppers
posting this.

The Rama says that Qadish Yasom was established for Qetanim, because
they cannot be Chazan.

BUT... the Rama is clear that this ended before the custom of multiple
people saying Qaddish at once began.

When writing the above, I started wondering about areas like Vilna,
where a daughter would say Qaddish for parents who had no sons. Did this
minhag begin back when only one person said Qaddish at a time? If so,
she would get the same priority for Qaddish Yasom as a qatan, no? But
cold you picture such a scene in early 19th cent Litta, a woman saying
Qaddish by herself on one side of the mechitzah or by the doorway, and
all the men of the minyan answering? So my instinct is that this minhag
post-dates group Qaddish. But my instinct might be based on revisionist
history, for all I know.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

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