Ask the director
Question: Why do we say kaddish for parents for 11 months rather than the full year?
F.G., East Greenwich
Dear F.G.,
The maximum 12 month purifaction process of a soul, which was derived from the Talmud, was only required for individuals who were totally evil. Based on the belief that no child should ever have to acknowledge the possibility of a completely wicked parent, Rabbi Moses ben Israel Isserlis, a great scholar in the 1500s, as well as several other scholars of that time, shortened the required period of saying kaddish for a parent to 11 months.
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