Lawrence A. Hoffman 
May God Remember [EPUB ebook] 
Memory and Memorializing in Judaism—Yizkor

Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Yizkor and Memorial in Jewish Tradition 1
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, Ph D

Part I: Theology and Practice
Hashkavah: Memorializing the Dead in Sephardi Practice 19
Yoram Bitton
Remembering the Dead: By Us and by God 22
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, Ph D
Remembering the Dead as Halakhic Peril 30
Rabbi Daniel Landes
Memorializing the Shoah 39
Rabbi Dalia Marx, Ph D
Sites and Subjects: Memory in Israeli Culture 63
Dr. Wendy Zierler

Part II: Historical Insights
Would Jeremiah Have Recited Yizkor? Yizkor and the Bible 71
Dr. Marc Zvi Brettler
Hazkarat N’shamot (‚Memorial of Souls‘): How It All Began 77
Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof, Ph D (z’l )
Kaddish and Memorial Services 90
Rabbi Jakob J. Petuchowski, Ph D (z’l )
Yizkor: A Microcosm of Liturgical Interconnectivity 104
Dr. Eric L. Friedland
‚Service for the Souls”: The Origin of Modern Memorial
Services, 1819 to 1938 113
Dr. Annette M. Boeckler

Part III: The Liturgy
The Traditional Yizkor Service 129
Translation and Commentary by Dr. Joel M. Hoffman

Part IV: Interpretations and Reflections
What Happens When We Die: Intimations of Immortality 141
Rabbi Lawrence A. Englander, CM, DHL
The Age of Amusement 145
Rabbi Edward Feinstein
Remembering through Forgetting: Yizkor as Unshared
Experience 147
Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand
Hard to Plan the Day 152
Rabbi Edwin Goldberg, DHL
Why Art Thou Cast Down? 156
Rabbi Andrew Goldstein, Ph D
Where Do People Go When They Die? 162
Dr. Joel M. Hoffman
Remembering Abraham Geiger 166
Rabbi Walter Homolka, Ph D, DHL
An Ongoing Conversation with Empty Chairs 171
Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur
Ode to Mortality 175
Rabbi Karyn D. Kedar
What Is Yizkor For? 178
Catherine Madsen
‚Empty-Handed before Adonai” 183
Rabbi Jonathan Magonet, Ph D
The Hippo of Recollection Stirring in the Muddy Waters of
the Mind 188
Rabbi Charles H. Middleburgh, Ph D
Re-membering: Yizkor and the Dynamics of Death 193
Rabbi Jay Henry Moses
Prayer for the Dead; Promise by the Living 198
Rabbi Aaron D. Panken, Ph D
When the Golden Shields Are Gone 202
Rabbi Jack Riemer
A Soul-ar Eclipse 206
Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
To Tear and to Sew 210
Rabbi David Stern
Remembering Our Past in Service to Our Future 214
Rabbi David A. Teutsch, Ph D
“For I Pledge Tz’dakah on Her Behalf” 219
Rabbi Margaret Moers Wenig, DD
A Time to Re-Member 223
Dr. Ron Wolfson
Remembering Our Summers in the Autumns of Our Years 226
Rabbi Daniel G. Zemel

Appendix A: Full Text of Hashkavah, the Sephardi Memorial
Prayer, with Translation 230
From Seder T’fillot: Book of Prayer, published by Union
of Sephardic Congregations, 1983
Appendix B: El Malei Rachamim: A Chronicle from the
Chmielnicki Pogroms 236
Translation and Commentary by Dr. Joel M. Hoffman
Appendix C: El Malei Rachamim: Music of 1888 251
Composition by Eduard Birnbaum
Notes 257
Glossary 274

Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, Ph D, has served for more than three decades as professor of liturgy at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. He is a world-renowned liturgist and holder of the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair in Liturgy, Worship and Ritual. His work combines research in Jewish ritual, worship and spirituality with a passion for the spiritual renewal of contemporary Judaism.He has written and edited many books, including All the World: Universalism, Particularism and the High Holy Days; May God Remember: Memory and Memorializing in Judaism—Yizkor, We Have Sinned: Sin and Confession in Judaism—Ashamnu and Al Chet, Who by Fire, Who by Water—Un’taneh Tokef and All These Vows—Kol Nidre, the first five volumes in the Prayers of Awe series; the My People’s Prayer Book: Traditional Prayers, Modern Commentaries series, winner of the National Jewish Book Award; and he is coeditor of My People’s Passover Haggadah: Traditional Texts, Modern Commentaries (all Jewish Lights), a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award.Rabbi Hoffman is a developer of Synagogue 3000, a transdenominational project designed to envision and implement the ideal synagogue of the spirit for the twenty-first century.Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, Ph D, is available to speak on the following topics:A Day of Wine and Moses: The Passover Haggadah and the Seder You Have Always Wanted Preparing for the High Holy Days: How to Appreciate the Liturgy of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur The Essence of Jewish Prayer: The Prayer Book in Context and Worship in Our Time Beyond Ethnicity: The Coming Project for North American Jewish Identity Synagogue Change: Transforming Synagogues as Spiritual and Moral Centers for the Twenty-First Century Click here to contact the author.