Kaddish Suit

With their garments slit, their locks tousled, an orthodox Jewish family mourns its dead by sitting shivah--in stocking feet, on rough boxes instead of chairs--during the first seven days. For eleven months after the death there is daily Kaddish, a prayer in the synagog, usually led by a son or daughter of the deceased. Some rabbis chant a routine, blanket Kaddish at the end of services, for all the congregation's dead. After eleven months the deceased is presumed to be redeemed by these prayers, to pass on from Gehenna (Hell) to Heaven. On the twelvemonth, and on successive anniversaries, prayers are again offered, and Yahrzeit lamps or candles burned. Many a U. S. rabbi was shocked last week to hear that one of his fellows was bringing Kaddish into court. In Joplin, Mo. last May died Louis Bormaster, shoe merchant. To conduct the ritual prayers the family got Rabbi Harry Wolf, who had come from St. Louis to solicit funds for the Poor Orphans Home of Jerusalem. Day after Merchant Bormaster's death, Rabbi Wolf gave this up and began the prayers. Daily, for nearly seven months, Rabbi Wolf would intone: ". . . Deevroh Be'olmoh Rabbo Sh'mai Veyiskadash Yisgadal" (Magnified and sanctified be His Great Name in the world he created . . . ). After that the Bormaster family told Rabbi Wolf they could finish out the eleven months of Kaddish themselves. Fortnight ago, charging he had been promised "reasonable compensation" for his services, Rabbi Wolf brought suit against Max, Joe, Sam, Ben, Mrs. Tillie and Mrs. Ethel Bormaster. He sought judgment for 150 prayers at $5 each, plus court costs. It is customary for Jewish families to give the synagog something for Kaddish prayers. But most rabbis thought $5 a bit high even for a private prayer, pointing out that Kaddish need not keep a rabbi from his other duties.

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