Why do we recite the Kaddish for a deceased loved one? Out of all the prayers, why was this prayer chosen? Even a person who is non-observant will make it their business to recite the prayer. Its up there with the Shema as the most popular prayers. The Sages say that the recitation is a tremendous benefit for the soul that passed away. Therefore if one wants to honor their loved ones to the utmost he should make the effort to recite Kadish for their sake.
In order to understand the importance of the prayer, we must start with a little story that will then shed some light.
Working for a boss can be quite challenging and frustrating at times. Sometimes we have to walk on egg shells in order not to make the employer upset. Sometimes even that doesn’t help. There were 2 individuals who had the monotonous task of being water carriers for a very difficult man. The job was to carry buckets of water from one end of the field to the pool. The boss assigned each individual their own personal bucket. However one of the bucket had a hole in it and for the most part the un-lucky employee, as one could imagine, was never able to deliver the full amount of water in the bucket. It reached a point where the other fellow would tease him of the useless task he was assigned with.
“Why is this lunatic trying to humiliate me” the employee said, about the boss, frustratingly. One day after being needled one time to many, by the fellow worker, he marched up to the bosses office up the hill demanding an explanation for the fruitless work.
The boss listened to his complaints and after a pause motioned the employee to follow him to the field where the employee had the dubious task of carrying the holy bucket. ” Recognize this route” the owner pointed to the ground. “This route which you carried the holy bucket is now full of flowers”.” Every day as you carried the bucket and the water leaked on the very same spots, the ground was absorbing its nourishment. You see there was meaning to your hard toil after all. However your friends route has no plants and flowers because his bucket did not leak. So the task wasn’t useless after all.
One may think that someone is inadequate, that his life is useless, however everyone has a unique task in life. Unfortunately, with the pressure of today’s America one may point the “useless” finger not just at his friend but at himself as well. We see this lesson the valuable lesson in this weeks parsha.
“All meal offerings brought near before G-d should not be prepared leavened for you shall not cause to go up in smoke from any leavening or any honey as a fire-offering to G-d” [Vayikra2:11]. The lesson of this pasuk is that the Mincha offering must be pure flour — no foreign ingredients can be added to enhance the basic requirement of the meal offering. Although honey was held in great esteem, there is a strict prohibition in the Torah against bringing an offering of honey on the altar of the Mizbeach. In this respect honey was treated like leaven, which was also forbidden. Even the incense (Ke’toreth) -which was composed of eleven kinds of spices, all of them with the exception of one-sweet-smelling and fragrant; to which, if only a drop of honey were added, the perfume would have