Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Where to say Yizkor?

As the Yizkor service approached on the last day of Pesach, I needed to decide what service to attend.  There were various considerations.  One was that my father would be with me.  He would be reciting Yizkor for his parents and his wife.  The other was whether I wanted to do Yizkor in the small setting of the early morning minyan I usually attend, where I'd be one of a handful of people saying Yizkor, or at the main shul minyan, where the Rabbi would speak before hand and there would be hundreds of people saying Yizkor.   I opted for the latter.  For my first Yizkor, I wanted to be a just one of a large group.  I felt a security in numbers.  I wanted to know if there would be loud cries, soft sobs, or just silence.  I will write about my experience in my next post, but suffice to say I think I made the right decision.

2 comments:

  1. I think we only begin saying Yizkor for the departed loved one after the year (or, 11 months) of kaddish has been completed.

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  2. see my Post "First Yizkor is near" regarding the issue of whether an avel should say Yizkor.

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