Kaddish during COVID: mourning rituals during a pandemic

Traditional Jewish mourning practices include the recitation of Kaddish during the grieving period and on the recurring anniversary of death. Kaddish recital requires the presence of a minyan. During the COVID-19 pandemic, quarantine and lockdown limited possibilities to gather as a quorum. This article offers a prosopographic sketch of the array of solutions to this Corona Kaddish conundrum. Three classes of solutions are discussed: (1) ad hoc quorums, including pirate, balcony, outdoor, virtual, and drive-in quorums; (2) substitutes, including shades of Kaddish or replacement practices; and (3) workarounds, including quorumless, proxy, and catch-up Kaddish. Common characteristics emerge from the cluster of solutions, and the collage tells a story about Jewish tradition and ritual. First, no previous pandemic saw such a gamut of Kaddish possibilities. This change can be linked to digital information sharing and to mourners’ desire for a means to recite Kaddish. Second, solutions were rooted in sources; no suggestion was entirely novel, indicating that there is a trove of sources hibernating until called upon by the community. Third, Jewish ritual may not be as frozen as many think and experience, since during the pandemic different ways of performing the ritual were entertained. Fourth, offered a plethora of options, practitioners of Judaism anonymously and unconsciously declared that Kaddish must be preserved. Moreover, ad hoc solutions and workarounds have been preferred over shadow images and replacement rituals. This indicates that mourners want to recite Kaddish, and they want to perform the ritual in a communal setting.