About Kaddish Learning
Kaddish Learning builds a list of mishnayot to learn in someone's memory, and helps you share it with everyone who is learning. It was inspired by a rabbi's need.
The custom
Learning Mishnah l'ilui nishmat, for the elevation of a soul, is a way to honor someone who has died. The letters of משנה are the letters of נשמה, soul. One custom is to learn the mishnayot whose opening letters spell the person's Hebrew name, followed by the letters of נשמה.
- נָפַלMikvaot 7:4
- שְׁלשָׁהMikvaot 7:5
- מִקְוֶהMikvaot 7:6
- הִטְבִּילMikvaot 7:7
Four mishnayot in a row, Mikvaot 7:4-7, open with the letters of נשמה in order. They are the first choices for those four letters.
How the list is made
- Each letter gets three choices from different tractates, on a rabbi's advice: a single pick can look random. You can also browse every mishnah for a letter and choose another.
- Pirkei Avot comes first when it has a match, then shorter mishnayot.
- No mishnah appears twice in one list.
- A mishnah's letter is the first letter of its first word, read without vowels, with final letters counted as their regular forms. Two mishnayot in Sotah open with a verse citation; their letter comes from the first word after it.
- דַּםBikkurim 2:7Other choices Mikvaot 6:2, Orlah 2:5
- וּבָאִילָןPeah 1:5Other choices Beitzah 2:3, Zevachim 7:3
- דָּםChullin 6:6Other choices Kelim 12:7, Sanhedrin 4:2
For the name דוד, each letter gets three choices from different tractates. The two דs get different mishnayot.
Two sheets to print
The source sheet has every mishnah on the list in full, Hebrew and then English, in the order of the letters of the name. Whoever teaches at the shiva, a rabbi or the family itself, can prepare every service from it in one sitting and bring one printout to all of them. The sign-up sheet is one line per mishnah with room for a name and a box to tick, for a shiva house or a shul, with a QR code that opens the list.
Sharing and privacy
Nothing you type is sent to a server or stored there. A shared link carries the whole list inside the link itself, including the names you wrote on it, so anyone who has the link can read them. Your draft is saved only in this browser, on this device.
To learn whether the site is helping, we count visits and which buttons are used, such as Share link and Source sheet, with GoatCounter. The count uses no cookies and never includes a name, a list, or anything you type.
The text
The Hebrew text of the Mishnah comes from Sefaria's public data export. The English translation is Mishnah Yomit by Dr. Joshua Kulp, under a Creative Commons Attribution license, also from Sefaria's export. Every mishnah links to Sefaria, where you can read other translations and commentary. If you find a mistake, please write to us.
Credits
Set in Frank Ruhl Libre and Source Serif 4, both under the SIL Open Font License. QR codes are drawn with qrcode-generator by Kazuhiko Arase, under the MIT License.
With thanks
We thank Hashem for the inspiration to create Kaddish Learning and for the ability to build it. We hope it helps families and communities learn together in memory of the people they love, and that every mishnah learned brings an aliyah to the neshamot of those it is learned for.