How big is your capacity to remember? Most of us would say it is shrinking. We can’t remember where we put the car keys. We have devices to ping and call to tell us where our phones are. We may forget that story that she told and then remember that we heard it a thousand times. We may forget what his voice sounded like.
Today, this day of all days,
in one another’s company
Yizkor invites us to remember
not only who but what.
We think of our own loved ones,
those that loved us fully
and those that didn’t love us enough
and we remember to love more.
We think of the leaders of our community,
those we knew
and those on whose foundations we stand
and we remember that we are now the builders.
We think of the members of our armed forces
who fought to defend America
over her 250 years
and we remember that even without weapons
we must defend our country.
We think of people who boarded planes
and went to work
on a brilliantly sunny day 25 years ago
whose lives ended in terror by terror
and we remember that we must live life to the fullest
for we cannot know our end.
We think of the victims of the Tree of Life Shooting in Pittsburgh
who simply wanted to go to Shul on a Shabbat morning,
pray with their friends and neighbors and have a nosh at kiddush
and we remember not the fear of dying by antisemitism
but the joy of living a Jewish life.
We remember the Israeli victims of October 7
those whose lives were taken in a flash
or after torture
and those who suffered for months underground
in caves that would become their first burial places
and we remember that Israelis and all Jews everywhere
are our extended family.
We remember the innocents of the world
caught in the middle of war, of natural disaster, of disease
and we remember that we were all made in God’s image
so rather than saying “there but for the grace of God go I”
we say “because of God’s grace, I will act in God’s image.”
We may be forgetting the little things
but the small flicker of the Yizkor candle
and the glow of the Yahrzeit lights
remind us to remember through who
what is important.
