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Tonight, many of us will be sitting around a seder table for the first time in several years. As we cautiously tiptoe our way towards a life that resembles the way we were before Covid, we find ourselves trying to remember how to sit at a table filled with people, how to recreate festive meals as we dust off boxes filled with haggadot and Passover dishes. It will feel so nice to look around the table and perhaps only see masks when we’re acting out the 10 plagues.

Yet I know that for so many of us, this Passover, and perhaps every Passover, is a time when we look around the table and can’t help but notice the empty chairs. We think of those we’ve lost, in seasons long gone and especially in these past difficult years, and it can make the Seder experience that much more poignant and painful.

Jewish tradition recognizes this time of loss, and every year, on the last day of Passover, we gather together for a Yizkor service. Unlike the Yizkor service on Yom Kippur, which is by its nature both formal and often quite large, the Passover Yizkor service is intimate and personal. We gather as a small group, offering not only words and songs of comfort, but taking the time for every mourner present to offer a name, a story, or a memory if they so choose. Some come just to listen, others to share.  It’s one of the most meaningful times of the year.

If you wish to join us this year, I hope you’ll do so.
Rabbi Amy
 

Yizkor Service
Friday, April 22, 11:00 am at Temple Israel
No RSVP required.
 Click here for more info.