On Shavouth, as on Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Passover, Jews assemble for Yizkor services to shed a tear and say a prayer for departed family and friends.

Those still blessed with living parents leave the synagogue during these intense intimate moments designated for those who are missing parents.

Yizkor is a loving expression of how much we miss our beloved, and cherish their memory. We pay tribute to a soul eternally lodged in heaven, linking ourselves to the divine aspect of the person that never dies. In a sense, we bring our loved ones back to life by sustaining their legacies and hopes in our own lives.

Remembering the Six Million
In addition to our immediate relatives, we also recite a collective Yizkor for the six million, including one and a half million children who perished in the Holocaust. This has added signifigance during this 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps.

In addition to our prayer for G-d to remember, Yizkor is also a message for us to remember. We mark not only the deaths but also the lives, dreams and wills of the Six Million.

More than just constructing memorials and museums for the dead, we bring them back to life through Jewish continuity. By perpetuating their memory we put a smile on the faces of our ancestors on high, by continuing their hope that Jews and Judaism would survive and thrive.

As we close our eyes, we may hear their whispering voices:

“Please give your children and yourself the gift of doing a Mitzvah and loving kindness, the treasures of Shabbos, Mezuzah, and Charity. Illuminate your sweet daughters with Shabbos Lights and adorn your precious sons with Tefilin. Fill your homes with Jewish values and inspiration.

“Bestow on your children the immortal richness of Jewish life, so in their lives, we, too, will continue to live."