Shavuot Festival Service & Yizkor

Our religion provides us with many opportunities to remember and honor those who are no longer with us. Traditionally, those who have lost a dear loved one recite Kaddish every day for one year after the passing of a spouse, child, parent, or sibling. We not only recite Yizkor prayers on Yom Kippur, the Day of Repentance, we also have an opportunity to recite Yizkor during the major festivals of Sukkot, Passover, and Shavuot. If you have experienced the loss of a loved one this year, we hope you will join us and find comfort at these additional services where your loved ones’ names will be read, and you will have a chance with your community to simply, humbly remember. This service will also be available via our livestream. WHAT IS YIZKOR? In Judaism, mourning is both private and public. When we visit a grave or observe a yahrzeit — the anniversary of a person’s death — we generally do so in private. Yizkor is the public observance for the community to come together to remember its loved ones. Yizkor means “may God remember,” and it is the name of the memorial service that we hold at Temple four times a year: on Yom Kippur day, Simchat Torah/Sh’mini Atzeret morning, the last day of Passover, and the morning of Shavuot. The Yizkor service itself consists of readings, silent passages, the memorial prayer El Male Rahamim, and the special prayer Av HaRahamim. Many congregations also include the Mourner’s Kaddish.