29 Elul 5773
September 4th, 2013
Good Yom Tov.
I encourage you to read the meditations in this Yizkor Booklet, now and during the year, so that you reflect more often on the memories of your loved ones no longer with us.
We have long personal memories and, as a Jewish people, we are steeped in history. There is a difference between memory and history and Yizkor has to do with both. Yizkor is an active verb: “to remember”, let me explain.
Personally I see in my own family how my Father, being from Tunisia and my Mother from Montreal, live their lives with their personal memories second to their common Jewish history. My wife Avia’s family is from Yemen. They too have strong Jewish memories in leading Torah lives. Their memories, mine, Avia’s and also yours are all linked to the “big picture”, the history of the Jewish people.
For example, at Pesach, we remember being freed as slaves in Egypt and when we received our laws at Mount Sinai. This is mentioned in our daily prayers and in every Shabbat Kiddush. We spend an entire night in a family setting actively remembering our family’s table and our people’s history through stories, songs, symbols and metaphors, special foods and games.
I ask that you do the same today and make Yizkor a personally active verb for yourself. Take three minutes to think of something good that your loved ones excelled at. Remember them in that favourable light so you can improve your own life in that way.
Imagine if we did this four times a year at each Yizkor service and at home every time we open this book, see how much more improved our own lives would be.
Thirty-three centuries ago, when our ancestors received the Torah on Mount Sinai, we, who are alive today, also received it as if we were actually there. As the Midrash tells us, in its own mystical way, the souls of every Jew witnessed that extraordinary event, even souls who were not yet born, including wandering souls that would eventually choose to be in the pool of Jewish souls. Each generation writes its own chapter and passes the pen to the next generation, praying that the Jewish people will continue to survive. Many families were lost along the way, but the Jewish people survived. We can look into our own personal history and see where someone in our family, within our recent memory or perhaps many years ago, considered that it is a vital matter for the survival as a Jewish people that we adhere to its laws and customs (as would be expected of the People of the Book) and as a consequence of their efforts, we gather here today as a Jewish people.
By us actively remembering these loved ones, they may continue to flourish in this world. This happens through our own efforts in commemorating and cherishing their memory during Yizkor and throughout the rest of the year.
Rabbi Amram Maccabi,
Beth Israel Synagogue,
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.