When praying alone, Jews do not recite certain prayers that are known as “devarim she-bi-kdusha.” These texts, almost always call-and-response in structure, are only said when one has a minyan of ten eligible adults (in Orthodox practice, eligible men). This means that when praying alone, many beloved passages are skipped. One of these is the Kaddish.

The Kaddish prayer is used to mark major divisions in the service. (As an incredibly brief summary: the half-Kaddish marks a break before a service, the full Kaddish marks the end of a main service, the kaddish d’rabbanan marks a break after study, and the mourner’s kaddish does everything else.) The Kaddish is a classic doxology, a prayer that repeats the praises of God and serves as a summary and conclusion of what has been said before. It is in Aramaic, the language of the community, and it is call and response. Many a mourner is aware of the pain that can come when one shows up to say kaddish and they can’t make a minyan.

The Yemenite Baladi community has a custom of reciting a passage they call the Brikh Shmeh d’Kudsha Brikh Hu when praying without a minyan. It is an abbreviated form of the Kaddish without any of the call and response passages, and features singular terminology. It fulfills the same role of division and doxology as the regular Kaddish does, but on a smaller, more personal scale. Their text is based on their own version of the Kaddish, though, which differs substantially from other communities’ versions.

This text takes the basic idea of the Baladi-rite ‘Brikh Shmeh d’Kudsha Brikh Hu‘ and adapts it for the Askenazi nusach of the Kaddish. It can be used when praying alone wherever a minyan would say the entire Kaddish. It could also be recited by a community in unison out loud when it can’t make a minyan, to show that even if we don’t have a full minyan, we still welcome mourners as part of our community.

This is part one in a series of replacements when praying alone for the Askhenazi rite that the editor is submitting.