When to Say Kaddish

Oct 24, 1997 - 16:39 -

I have a question:
My grandmother died on Sept 26 1994. I assumed her yahrzeit would be that week. However ,last nite while talking to my Dad he mentioned having gone recently to say kaddish. When I asked he said the date was pushed back because of some holiday. He didn't really know why and didn't know if it was just this year or if its always that way. Could you help me out?

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The Jewish calendar is different from the Gregorian calendar. Thus September 26 will fall on a different day of the (Jewish) year every year. So you need to know the real (i.e., Jewish) date of your grandmother's death.

There are Jewish calendaring programs on-line that determine this from the Gregorian date of death, and will print a list of all future Gregorian dates corresponding to your grandmother's yahrzeits. (September 26 may vary by over three weeks.)

Those are the dates when kaddish is said, candles-lighted, etc. The date of the observation of the anniversary of the death never changes. It is not "pushed back" or otherwise affected by any holidays.

Jewish dates begin and end at sundown. The Gregorian September 26, 1994 spans two different (Jewish) dates. If your grandmother passed away after sundown, be sure to enter September 27, not the 26th.

Similarly, the first time to say Kaddish and light yahrzeit candles will be the evening before the Gregorian dates printed out by the program. And the last service at which to say kaddish is mincha (afternoon) of the Gregorian date printed.

To find an on-line calendaring program, go to
http://www.webjew.org
Then select the option, "Where is it Written?". On that page are links to calendaring sites.

There are also two shareware calendaring programs, Jcal (DOS) and HebCal (Windows) that can be found in many places. The old Jcal is the easier and faster and smaller of the two. There may be others.