yizkor

yizkor, memorial prayer service recited for the dead by Ashkenazi (West and East European) Jews. The name yizkor comes from the first word of the prayer, which begins: Yizkor elohim nishmas… (Hebrew: May God remember the soul of…). The memorial service occurs four times a year: during synagogue services on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), on the eighth day of Passover, on the second day of Shavuot (Feast of Weeks), and on Shemini Atzeret (the eighth day of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles). In Israel, where these holidays occur in different lengths than in the diaspora, it is said on Yom Kippur, the seventh day of Passover, and the singular day of Shavuot. Israeli and Reform Jews combine Shemini Atzeret with Simchat Torah and observe the yizkor service as part of this double holiday.

Initially, the yizkor mourning prayer was said only on Yom Kippur and was associated with a practice of giving charity (tzedakah) in honor of the deceased. The now-popular yizkor prayer service for the dead arose during the European Middle Ages, when the names of Jewish martyrs were regularly read aloud during the synagogue services.

The prayers, recited after the reading of the Torah and before the Torah scrolls are returned to their place in the holy ark, permit the worshipers to insert the names of departed relatives, who, it is believed, are also in need of atonement. In some instances, non-mourners who do not recite yizkor momentarily leave the room. For new mourners, it may not be said prior to the first yahrzeit (Yiddish: death anniversary). Much like the yahrzeit observance, a small, special yizkor or yahrzeit candle is often lit as part of the memorial service.

The service begins with preparatory prayers and readings. Next, congregants participating in the yizkor service silently read and reflect on passages from prayer books that are specific to departed fathers, mothers, male relatives, female relatives, extended relatives, and martyrs. Following the silent part is the funeral chant el male raḥamim (Hebrew: “God full of compassion”), and finally the prayer for martyrs av ha-raḥamim (Hebrew: “ancestor of compassion”). In some congregations the section on martyrs specifically invokes the victims of the Holocaust.

Sephardi Jews (descendants of Jews who lived in the Iberian peninsula) have a somewhat similar custom, in which a person called up for the reading of the Torah may offer a short prayer (hashkabah) for their departed relatives.