For generations, Jews have studied Mishnayos as a merit for their departed loved ones. Find out the meaning of Mishnayos for mourners specifically and how to complete the Mishnayos as a merit for a loved ones soul.
When we talk about mishnayos for mourners, we want to know first: what exactly is mishnayos? Here’s a quick overview of what the Mishnah is all about.
The Mishnah is the first written collection of the teachings of the Oral Torah. It serves as the basic foundation of the Jewish mesorah (tradition), with references to laws that relate to most aspects of Jewish life. From the laws of Shabbos to the laws of keeping kosher, as well as ethics and interpersonal laws, the original guide to each of these laws is found in the Mishnah.
As the guidebook of Jewish law, the Mishnah served as the basis for the Talmud, which further elucidates Jewish law. All the ideas and teachings found both in the Mishnah and the Talmud are part of the Oral Torah, which was given over to Moshe (Moses) at Mattan Torah (Giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai). It was Moshe’s duty to entrust this tradition to his students, who became the sages of the next generation. Each generation’ sages would in turn pass it on to their students, through oral transmission, for all future generations.
However, in the time immediately following the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash (Holy Temple), the sages realized that there was a danger that the transmission of the Oral Torah, with all its details, could no longer be sustained due to the upheaval of the time. It was time to write down the teachings of the Oral Torah in a guidebook that would allow future generations to learn it and remember it properly.
The Tannaim, the great Torah scholars of that time period (10-220 CE) worked to standardize the teachings of the laws of the Oral Torah. The last of the Tannaim, Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi, collected all of the Tannaic teachings into the Mishnah. With his death, the period of the Tannaim was over, and the Mishnah was complete.
The Mishnah is divided in six sections; these sections are called Sedarim (Orders). Each order is further subdivided into Masechtos (tractates), of which there are 63 in total. The tractates themselves are also divided into sections, called Perakim (chapters). The entire Mishnah is comprised of 525 chapters.
The individual statements that make up the Mishnah’s chapters are called Mishnahs, or Mishnayos. There are over 4,000 Mishnahs in all six orders of the Mishnah. (4,187, to be exact). It is these statements of the Mishnah, in their individual chapters, tractates and orders, that mourners strive to learn as a merit for their departed loved ones.
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While many people know about saying Kaddish on a yahrzeit, learning Mishnah is actually an even greater merit, says the Chida, a renowned scholar and kabbalist. The Chidah tells us that learning Mishnah is a merit 7 times greater than saying Kaddish.
Why do mourners learn mishnah? Of course, learning Torah, any part of Torah, is a merit for the soul of your departed loved ones. But mishnah is specifically chosen because of its extra significance for your loved one’s soul.
In Hebrew, the letters of Mishnah (משׁנה) are the same as that of the Hebrew word for soul: Neshama (נשׁמה). Because Hebrew letters are holy, this similarity is not just a coincidence, but actually shows us that there is a deep connection between a Jewish neshamah and the order of the Mishnah.
The main characteristic of a Jewish neshamah is that it is eternal. Its essence never dies; rather, it simply leaves the physical body and moves to another realm. This eternity is reflected in the nature of the Mishnayos, which is the basis of the Oral Torah.
In Judaism, there is the concept of two parts to the Torah: the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. The Written Torah is given over through the existence of Torah scrolls and other written, documented Books of the Torah. But the Oral Torah is given over through oral transmission by the sages of each generation to their students, who will become the future leaders of the next generation. (As mentioned above, due to extenuating circumstances, a decision was made during the time of the Tannaim that these teachings should be written down in the form of the Mishnah, so that the Torah’s laws would not be forgotten).
Even once the Oral Torah was written down in the Mishnah, it was still different from the Written Torah in many ways. First, each statement in the Mishnah is mentioned in the name of the Tanna who said it, expressing the oral nature of its transmission. Second, the teachings of the Mishnah are very concise, and require a Rabbi’s teaching to fully comprehend their significance. This preserved the oral transmission of Jewish laws, as the explanation of the Mishnah is still passed down orally through the chain of generations.
By passing down the laws of Jewish life in the Oral Torah from rabbi to student throughout the generations, the Jewish nation has been able to retain its original Jewish halachic lifestyle despite all the changes that have taken place. Jewish tradition is still alive and whole today because of the Oral Torah’s transmission. And for all ensuing generations, the mesorah (tradition) of the Oral Torah will continue to be passed down as the bedrock of Jewish life, ensuring the continuity and eternity of the Jewish people.
The Mishnah, as the basis of all the Oral Torah learned today, is the most meaningful expression of this concept. Thanks to the mesorah that the Mishnah represents, the Torah given to the Jewish nation has endured, and will endure, throughout all the generations, for eternity.
Just as the Jewish soul is eternal, so too the Mishnah is a force for eternity. This powerful link between the eternal neshamah and the eternal nature of the Mishnah is one of the deeper meanings behind learning Mishnayos for the deceased.
The first milestone post-death when learning mishnayos for the deceased is usually completed is at the 30-day mark, called the shloshim. Finishing all of mishnayos for shloshim is an ambitious goal, but it can be done, provided proper planning is invested.
Thinking about finishing mishnayos for shloshim usually begins during the shiva (week of Jewish mourning), when many visitors come by for nichum aveilim (to comfort the mourners). It is common practice for a shloshim mishnayos list to be passed around to the visitors, who will fill in their name at the slot of a specific mishnayos section, usually a masechta (tractate). Some tractates are longer, with more chapters, while others are shorter, with less chapters. You can print this list of the tractates with the amount of chapters in each one, so that visitors can sign up to learn mishnayos for the deceased.
Before beginning the learning of mishnayos, the person should say,
“L’iluy nishmas _____ ben/bas______”, (for the elevation of the soul of ____ son/daughter of ______).
Fill in the Hebrew name of the departed and the departed’s father’s name in the blanks.
After getting up from shiva, you may look at the shloshim mishnayos list to see how many sections remain. If there are a lot of chapters left to finish in time for the shloshim, you might want to ask close family members if they can take on to learn some more Mishnayos in time for the shloshim, so that the entire Mishnah can be completed.
If there still remain many chapters or tractates to be learned and completed, you can reach out to RMBH Charities’ Chevrah Lomdei Mishnayos service to learn these for your loved one. With this option, you get the added merit of supporting Torah scholars through your donation, and you can also be sure that the entire Mishnah will be completed in time for the shloshim.
The next benchmark for which many try to have the Mishnah completed is in time for the first yahrzeit (Jewish death anniversary), and again every year on the yahrzeit. The yahrzeit is a time to bring extra merit for the souls of your departed loved ones, and as we have seen, learning mishnayos is an especially powerful merit.
Learning mishnayos for yahrzeit can take place throughout the year of mourning, as it’s always counted as the merit of learning mishnayos for the deceased. The completion of the mishnayos for yahrzeit should take place on the actual date of the yahrzeit, however.
In order to be able to complete the mishnayos once again, it’s helpful to reach out to those who helped you complete mishnayos for shloshim and ask them if they would be willing to learn the same masechta again, in the merit of your loved one. Otherwise, you may decide to take it upon yourself to learn most of the mishnayos for mourners, doing it slowly throughout the year. Such learning, aside from serving as a merit for the departed, will also serve as a personal merit and catalyst for growth.
Even if completing the entire Mishnah sounds like an overwhelming undertaking, you can still give your loved one the merit of mishnayos for yahrzeit. One chapter, tractate or complete Seder is also of tremendous value. A uniquely meaningful idea, which can be done in addition to having the entire Mishnah completed, is to learn mishnayos that begin with the Hebrew letters of the departed’s Hebrew name. You can get a list of mishnayos that begin with each letter of the Hebrew alphabet and choose the ones that apply to your loved one.
As the yahrzeit approaches, if you find that there are still a lot of tractates or chapters to finish, you can still use RMBH’s mishnayos for mourners service, who will learn the tractates and mishnayos you specify in the merit of your loved one.
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