[Avodah] Le'ilui Nishmas an Infant

[Zvi Lampel]

 RMB: Second issue, if someone didn't inspire others to do the mitzvah in

> question, how can that mitzvah be added to their cheshbon. And I don't
> mean that they in effect inspired, I mean chose to inspire. After all,
> what's the sekhar in just happening to be a cause, no different than a
> falling rock could be a cause?...How do we satisfy straightforward notions
> of Dayan haEmes with these things?

I suggested:

ZL (Avodah V38 #112): It seems that the concept for one's ] is that Hashem
> gave people the power to gift each
> other, or to assign a sharing of the merits they gain to whomever they
> please. Just as it is in olam hezeh. What is the justice that I should
> gain
> wealth by my shver gifting me, just because I married his daughter?
> Not that I have a mekor for any of this. Maybe we can relate it to the
> concept of a kinyan to B through the han'a'a that A get's from B' accepting
> the item from him. (The niftar's neshamah is surely choosing to grant the
> learner the hana'a of accepting the learner's gift to it. In exchange of
> that hana'a to the learner, that neshama gains the merit of the learning.)


But RMB dismissed that with:

>
> RMB:
> >> Yes. But we're talking about how the RBSO could be Just. I would prefer
> >> getting to a point of "I really don't know" than embracing theories
> >> that don't seem fair. It's theology. "I don't know" is a perfectly fine
> >> answer; we shouldn't insist we /can/ understand it all and settle for
> >> compromises....


And I agreed, but called attention to how this relates to the original
issue:

ZL > True. But it is only a dilemma deserving an ''I don't know' response
if you
> accept the premises that the practice of saying kaddish in such a
situation
> is valid, somehow ...

RMB: Which situations?


ZL: I meant situations such as an infant's petira, and the application to
it of the le'i'ui nishmas concept.
Or situations such as when ''[others doing a mitzvah ''on someone's
behalf''] when that someone ''didn't inspire the others to do the mitzvah
in question,'' where the question arises over the fairness of how that
mitzvah can be added to their cheshbon.

So I wrote that this is only a dilemma if such practices, particularly with
such a kavana, were attributable to minhag Yisrael/bnei neviim heim.

RMB replied:

RMB: Qaddish for someone who you don't owe in that sort of way doesn't
> actually

have a long tradition. I wouldn't assume it qualifies as minhag Yisrael.

Me: I'm not informed about the minhag status of Kaddish for an infant,
or learning
something like mishnayos for a stranger. Nor of the history of doing these
things with the intent of 'e'ilui nafsham. If such practice, and certainly
if the attribution of ilui nefesh powers to the practice does not qualify
as a minhag, then that would tend to weaken the need for an explanation of
''I don't know'' for why we are making such an attribution.

RMB concluded: But I think that regardless of whether a person can get
> zekhus for a
> mitzvah done, rather than for their role in causing that mitzvah to be
> done, if the emotions of the moment can cause someone to say Qaddish
> with kavvanah, why not say it?


Fine, L'maa'aseh of reciting the Kaddish. But the original issue was the
theological one of how to defend applying the concept of le'ilui nishmas in
such situations.

Zvi Lampel

- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF                      - Rabindranath Tagore
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