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Dear Temple Israel community,

The view from the bimah is a unique one. Even when our Sanctuary is opened to its fullest capacity on the High Holy Days, the height of the bimah allows the Rabbis to have a clear view of every single person who walks into the sanctuary. It’s a wonderful view of the community, watching as people stream into the room and get settled. Those first few moments of the service, even after the prayers have begun, we get to watch the way that people look around to find family and friends, or move seats for a better view, or comment to each other quietly; the congregation buzzes for quite a while until people settle in. It’s this sweet communal ritual that reminds us of how good it is to be together again, and it happens the same way at every High Holy Days service. That is, at every service except for Yizkor.

At the Yizkor service, somehow none of that matters. Instead, people immediately find a seat, and the first thing they do is open up the Book of Remembrance. From the bimah, I watch them as they scan through the pages looking for their family’s entries. There is a solemnity and a comfort to this ritual that moves me so deeply. I do it myself at the Yizkor service, even though I help put the book together each year and have checked and double checked that the names are in there. It’s as if somehow I need the confirmation of seeing my loved ones names in print, of wanting to be sure that as we sing and mourn and meditate during the memorial service, their names will be remembered. It isn’t that I need to be reminded of their absence — by the time we’ve reached the Yizkor service, I have been thinking of them since Rosh Hashanah, wishing I could watch them find their seats, remembering the ways we celebrated each year together. But the act of seeing their names brings a wholeness that I need, and I hope it does the same for you as well.

L’shalom,
Rabbi Amy Feder

There are two ways to include the names of your loved ones in the Book of Remembrance: Establish a perpetual memorial or submit names for the Book of Remembrance “In Loving Memory:” Find out more and add your loved ones' names here: www.ti-stl.org/Remembrance