Why is Kaddish Said on a Yahrzeit?
The answer, based on a statement of the Arizal, the great Jewish mystic of early 16th century Tzfat, requires a number of introductions. • The Torah teaches us that there is more to people than their visible bodies, more even than intellect, psyche, and feelings. There is a transcendant part of us that lives on in a real way even after the body is buried. • Existence after death is essentially pleasant, wonderful, and spiritual, but a person must be ready for it. How one lives in this world makes a big difference. • This inner side of a person, when liberated from the bounds of the body must undergo a purification process (much less intense for those who devoted their lives to goodness and purity) that readies him or her for continuing constant elevation, an ever-closer connection to the Divine. • There is a kind of schedule to what happens to a person “after” death. The first year after death is devoted to purification. That is followed by elevation. The day a person passed away, in Y
