yizkor speech shmini 2022

 

 When I was a boy, people who did not say yizkor, people who were not going to engage in this long-term mourning ritual, left before the speech.  The abandonment of their leaving added to the mystique. The people who stayed, who were actually going to say yizkor, were going to hear a secret; something an outsider could not understand.  The subject of this speech could be confusing and disturbing to the uninitiated.  When I was a boy, I welcomed the break from service. Now, everyone can come to that speech.  Now, even I give that speech. Perhaps there are some secrets in my speech. Hamyvin Yavin. 

Today, on Shmini Atzereth we are about to say yizkor. Both of these things -the holiday of Shmini Athzereth and Yizkor - are a little obscure.  I think we can learn something about Yizkor from Shmini Atzeret and something about Shmini Atzereth from Yizkor. 

 

The section of Shmini atzereth in the shulchan aruch, the code of Jewish law, is very short.  It starts

It starts: ליל שמיני אומר בתפלה ותתן לנו את יום שמיני חג העצרת הזה: הגה ואנו נוהגין שאין אומרים חג בשמיני דלא מצינו בשום מקום שנקרא חג אלא אומרים יום שמיני עצרת [מנהגים

On the night of Shmini Atzeret, we say in the Amidah "and You gave us this eighth day as a festival of Atzeret." Rem"a: We do not refer to the eighth day as a "festival" because there is nowhere [in the Torah] that it is called a festival. Rather, we say "the eighth day of Atzeret."

[I will not discuss the various versions: Hachag hazeh vs shmini chag haa'atereth]

We can be confident that Rabbi Moshe Isserlis is accurate in his observation. What does it mean.  What is this entity of Azereth?  In our siddurim we are celebrating or observing the eighth day as the holiday of atzereth. 

Often, especially in the context of the days that include atzereth in their names ( the eighth day after succoth and the seventh day of Passover) atzereth is translated : assembly or solemn assembly. 

Yizkor is said on all of the atzereth days: In addition to Shmini, the chag of atzereth, it is said on the last day of Passover, which the Torah calls...atzereth

 עֲצֶ֨רֶת֙ שֵׁ֥שֶׁת יָמִ֖ים תֹּאכַ֣ל מַצֹּ֑ות וּבַיֹּ֣ום הַשְּׁבִיעִ֗י

Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly  עֲצֶ֨רֶת֙  to the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work. Deuteronomy 16:8

In the Talmud,, atzereth refers to Shavuoth. We do the yizkor service on Yom Kippur and those three days, exclusively. 

In a sense, yizkor is the product of this solemn assembly.  Rabbi Abraham manning, in his 2019 lecture for the OU on the origins of Yizkor says

• For many people, including many who are otherwise not observant, Yizkor has become an indispensable part of their shul experience. Indeed, although Yizkor can halachically be said privately and without a minyan, it has become a major draw to the synagogue, especially on Yom Kippur

Although Yizkor is by no means the most important concept in Torah, since so many people consider it to be central, the poskim seek to strengthen the minhag where possible.

Yizkor seems to be something that has a popular, rather than a Torah of Talmudic orgin.  It is the product of the solemn assembly, now supported by the Rabbis

Perhaps the connection between atzereth, assembly, and yizkor is related to   a beautiful Sephardic custom I recently learned about.  They practice this at SBH.  When a person who is mourning comes to pray in the synagogue, people move from their regular seats to sit close the mourner, to physically show their support. When a loved one or a relative dies, there is an emptiness that cannot be filled with strangers, but at least the isolation can be palliated.  In Yizkor, our coming together as a group is a comfort for all.  We show that we share a common desire to keep the tenuous links from fraying further. So when we Ashkenazim say yizkor, we generate some of that sense of togetherness by excluding those who are not engaged in this ritual from the synagogue.  We limit the assembly to the solemn. 

This emphasizes the need for the synagogue as a place to gather for mutual support. That is part of the reason that yizkor is a time for requesting support for the maintenance of the synagogue

The root of atzereth is atzor: stop, block. The assembly results from blocking the exit of the pilgrims. Rashi makes this point when  shmini atzereth is mentioned for the first time in the Torah: Leviticus 23:36

Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord: on the eighth day shall be a holy gathering    מִקְרָא־קֹדֶשׁ֩  to you; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord; it is a solemn assembly  עֲצֶ֣רֶת הִ֔וא; and you shall do no servile work.

עצרת הוא. עָצַרְתִּי אֶתְכֶם אֶצְלִי; כְּמֶלֶךְ שֶׁזִּמֵּן אֶת בָּנָיו לִסְעוּדָה לְכָךְ וְכָךְ יָמִים, כֵּיוָן שֶׁהִגִּיעַ זְמַנָּן לִפָּטֵר, אָמַר, בָּנַי בְּבַקָּשָׁה מִכֶּם עַכְּבוּ עִמִּי עוֹד יוֹם אֶחָד, קָשָׁה עָלַי פְּרֵדַתְכֶם: עצרת הוא —

 The word is derived from the root עצר “to hold back” and suggests: I keep you back with Me one day more. It is similar to the case of a king who invited his children to a banquet for a certain number of days. When the time arrived for them to take their departure he said, “Children, I beg of you, stay one day more with me; it is so hard for me to part with you!” (cf. Rashi on Numbers 29:36 and Sukkah 55b).

 

This rashi is very touching. This pilgrimage, which may have started 7 days earlier on Succoth, this season of reflection and celebration that started three weeks ago, on Rosh Hashannah, is coming to an end, and there is a plaintive desire to keep the closeness, to not let it end..  It evokes the feeling of Yizkor: trying to  maintain the connection with those we can now interact with only through memory. It evokes that longing

Relating the day to aztur, stopping and the accumulation that results from stopping a flow echoes the meaning of the day to second paragraph of the shema, recited at least twice daily, it includes the phrase: 

וְעָצַ֤ר אֶת־הַשָּׁמַ֙יִם֙ וְלֹֽא־יִהְיֶ֣ה מָטָ֔ר 

 shut up the heavens, that there be no rain,

Shmimi atzeret is the day that we say tefillath geshem, the initiation of the ongoing recognition of the importance of rain.  We start to say  mashiv haruach umorid hageshem in the second blessing  of the  shmoneh esrei, the core supplication paryer. This particular section   ends with: mechaye hamethim: who brings the dead to life: A distant hope when we say yizkor.  It is the rain, the tears from heaven that are held back, atzar,  in the dry season and their release gives life to the vegetation and ultimately to us

Yizkor is a time when we can release the tears that we have stored for those we mention.  Those complex tears of longing, regret and love, looking for an appropriate time when we can gather with others who understand us.  When we can nourish the memory by releasing the stored tears.