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magidYizkor is a memorial service, said during holiday prayers (same word root, z-ch-r as the word for "remember") just after Torah reading.
There is a fairly wide-spread custom for people who have no (first degree) people to remember (parents, siblings, children) go out; my father specifically requested that I not attend this service until I need to, so I don't. Of course, a lot of people take this opportunity to chat, and usually are still close enough to the main shul that the noise can be heard, which I always feel badly about. A lot of people who don't come to services a lot of the time make a special effort to come for this, and they hear happy people jabbering outside. (Of course, it would make far too much sense for people to go into another room, or something...).
Anyway. Last year, with 9/11 events so recent, and suicide bombings so frequent in Israel, R. Klapper did something different, having the people who left say a prayer for people (there's more in my paper journal; don't feel like digging it up).
This year, he lead people in a prayer for the MIA Israeli soldiers, then in a prayer mourning all the Israelis killed in the last year. He said that he tried to read a list of all those killed by name, but in an hour, he couldn't finish all the names. He mentioned a few, in the minutes we had until yizkor was over in the main shul, and it was so sad to hear. There were people with the same last names - parent and child? spouses? - and one just "unnamed baby" [last name], killed before even getting a name.
Of course, this reflects his politics, and wouldn't be done in the same way in a bunch of places, but I like that he's taken this time that could just be people starting the year's lashon hara ("evil speech;" 'Did you see what she's wearing?' 'Did you hear what he did?' etc etc etc) while interrupting others into a moment with meaning.
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There is a fairly wide-spread custom for people who have no (first degree) people to remember (parents, siblings, children) go out; my father specifically requested that I not attend this service until I need to, so I don't. Of course, a lot of people take this opportunity to chat, and usually are still close enough to the main shul that the noise can be heard, which I always feel badly about. A lot of people who don't come to services a lot of the time make a special effort to come for this, and they hear happy people jabbering outside. (Of course, it would make far too much sense for people to go into another room, or something...).
Anyway. Last year, with 9/11 events so recent, and suicide bombings so frequent in Israel, R. Klapper did something different, having the people who left say a prayer for people (there's more in my paper journal; don't feel like digging it up).
This year, he lead people in a prayer for the MIA Israeli soldiers, then in a prayer mourning all the Israelis killed in the last year. He said that he tried to read a list of all those killed by name, but in an hour, he couldn't finish all the names. He mentioned a few, in the minutes we had until yizkor was over in the main shul, and it was so sad to hear. There were people with the same last names - parent and child? spouses? - and one just "unnamed baby" [last name], killed before even getting a name.
Of course, this reflects his politics, and wouldn't be done in the same way in a bunch of places, but I like that he's taken this time that could just be people starting the year's lashon hara ("evil speech;" 'Did you see what she's wearing?' 'Did you hear what he did?' etc etc etc) while interrupting others into a moment with meaning.
e