[af_vet_1981]

First of all the Kadish is not a prayer for the dead. Here are the words.

It is not about the words; it is the intent. Jews absolutely pray for the dead. What follows is a simple explanation to document the practice.

Why, then, is Kaddish recited by mourners?

After a great loss like the death of a parent, you might expect a person to lose faith in G-d, or to cry out against G-d's injustice. Instead, Judaism requires a mourner to stand up every day, publicly (i.e., in front of a minyan, a quorum of 10 adult men), and reaffirm faith in G-d despite this loss. To do so inures to the merit of the deceased in the eyes of G-d, because the deceased must have been a very good parent to raise a child who could express such faith in the face of personal loss.

Then why is Kaddish recited for only 11 months, when the mourning period is 12 months? According to Jewish tradition, the soul must spend some time purifying itself before it can enter the World to Come. The maximum time required for purification is 12 months, for the most evil person. To recite Kaddish for 12 months would imply that the parent was the type who needed 12 months of purification! To avoid this implication, the Sages decreed that a son should recite Kaddish for only eleven months.

[editor-surveyor]

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>> “It is not about the words; it is the intent. Jews absolutely pray for the dead. What follows is a simple explanation to document the practice.” <<

Nothing in your post is from scripture, it is from the very “Traditions of Men” that Yeshua spent the entire 23rd chapter of Matthew denouncing.

What “Jews” do and what Moses did are two completely different sets of actions and beliefs.

There is no provision in scripture for any period of “purification” for a departed soul. They obviously go to “The Bosom of Abraham” until the entire elect are gathered at the Last Trump for the wedding feast of Yeshua, and that period varies depending on when the person lived and died.

Yehova has no need of any input from family to discern the Heart of the deceased!

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[CynicalBear]

“The sages decreed”! Better take a look at what Jesus thought of the man made laws that had been added to the Torah.