4867 —מקור המנהג באה"ק להוסיף "קדישא" בקדיש דרבנן (די באתרא קדישא הדין), והגשמת החלטות ההתוועדויות

B"H, 25 Marcheshvan, 5717

Brooklyn.

The veteran Chassid, G‑d-fearing man, distinguished and honored, etc., our teacher Rabbi Shmuel Elazar, may he live

Shalom u'Vrachah!

I acknowledge receipt of your letter of 18 Marcheshvan; and surely you have long since received my letter in reply to your previous letters. I likewise acknowledge receipt of the periodical you sent, and surely you will keep up this good custom in the future too; thank you in advance.

As you request, at an auspicious time all those you write about will be mentioned, in keeping with the content of your letter, at the holy resting place of my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe, of saintly memory.

I was pleased to receive the regards and the news about the farbrengens and the arousal to good activities; and may it be G‑d's will that you report good news also of the actual implementation of the resolutions.

With blessing for good news, always, all the days.

As for what you write about the custom in the Holy Land, may it be built and established, to add in Kaddish de'Rabbanan "(in this) holy (place)"^[1] — one should investigate the origin and source of the custom. Especially since this addition is not found in the Kaddish de'Rabbanan in the order of prayer in the Rambam — in all the editions I have seen — nor in the one at the end of the tractates of the Talmud and the Mishnah, nor in the siddurim Avodas Yisrael and Otzar HaTefillos. The wording is also somewhat difficult, for the entire Land is holy, and not this place in particular. — And note the Lekach Tov on Shemos 3:5^[2]. And every shul and study hall is a holy place (note Sefer Yereim, section 324). — In the siddur of the Rashash^[3], printed in Jerusalem in 5676, the above addition does not appear.

Publisher's notes

Rabbi Shmuel Elazar: Shaulson, Jerusalem. Other letters to him — above, vol. 13, letter 4294, and the sources noted there.

Notes

[1] "(In this) holy (place)" ((באתרא) קדישא (הדין)): Kaddish de'Rabbanan says די באתרא הדין ודי בכל אתר ואתר, "who are in this place and in every place"; in Eretz Yisrael the custom arose to say די באתרא קדישא הדין, "in this holy place."

[2] Lekach Tov on Shemos 3:5 (לקח טוב לשמות ג, ה): the Midrash Lekach Tov on the verse "for the place on which you stand is holy ground."

[3] The siddur of the Rashash (סי' הרש"ש): the siddur of Rabbi Shalom Sharabi, the siddur of the Kabbalistic intentions.

Summary

This letter acknowledges a periodical and news of farbrengens, hoping their resolutions are carried out. It questions the Eretz Yisrael custom of adding "kadisha" (holy) to "in this place" in Kaddish de'Rabbanan: the addition is absent from the Rambam's text and standard siddurim, and the whole Land, as well as every shul, is holy.