Yom HaZikaron/Date (2024)Evening of Sun, May 12, 2024 – Mon, May 13, 2024 & The Real Reason We Are Hated By Rabbi Reuven Taragin & DAYENU! By Saul Jay Singer & Netanyahu: ‘If Necessary, We Will Fight with our Fingernails’
Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement.
I will be sponsoring a kiddush again this week in honor of my recent birthday. Please mark your calendars as it on Shabbat.
It will be Shabbat May 18th at my Yeshiva, Ner Avraham in Rehavia. I will also be sponsoring the third meal at the Yeshiva. Please contact me if you need the location. You only have a birthday like this one once (of course that is true for all birthdays) so, I would all my friends to come to help me celebrate.
Netanyahu: 'If Necessary, We Will Fight with our Fingernails'
The Three are Rabbi Yehuda Glick, famous temple mount activist, and former Israel Mk, and then Robert Weinger, the world's greatest shofar blower and seller of Shofars, and myself after we had gone to the 12 gates of the Temple Mount in 2020 to blow the shofar to ask G-d to heal the world from the Pandemic. It was a highlight to my experience in living in Israel and I put it on my blog each day to remember.
The articles that I include each day are those that I find interesting, so I feel you will find them interesting as well. I don't always agree with all the points of each article but found them interesting or important to share with you, my readers, and friends. It is cathartic for me to share my thoughts and frustrations with you about life in general and in Israel. As a Rabbi, I try to teach and share the Torah of the G-d of Israel as a modern Orthodox Rabbi. I never intend to offend anyone but sometimes people are offended and I apologize in advance for any mistakes. The most important psychological principle I have learned is that once someone's mind is made up, they don't want to be bothered with the facts, so, like Rabbi Akiva, I drip water (Torah is compared to water) on their made-up minds and hope that some of what I have share sinks in. Love Rabbi Yehuda Lave.
Yom HaZikaron/Date (2024) Evening of Sun, May 12, 2024 – Mon, May 13, 2024
Yom Hazikaron is Israel's Official Memorial Day for her fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism. Falling either in late April or early May every year, Yom Hazikaron is an especially solemn time marked by ceremonies and moments of silence across the country.
Yom HaZikaron (Hebrew: יוֹם הַזִּכָּרוֹן, lit. 'Memorial Day'), in full Yom HaZikaron LeHalelei Ma'arkhot Yisrael ul'Nifge'ei Pe'ulot HaEivah (Hebrew: יוֹם הזִּכָּרוֹן לְחַלְלֵי מַעַרְכוֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל וּלְנִפְגְעֵי פְּעֻלּוֹת הָאֵיבָה, lit. 'Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of the Wars of Israel and Victims of Actions of Terrorism'),[2] is Israel's official remembrance day,[3] enacted into law in 1963.[4] While Yom HaZikaron has been traditionally dedicated to fallen soldiers, commemoration has also been extended to civilian victims of terrorism.[5]
History
An IDF officer places new flags, each with a black ribbon, on the graves of IDF soldiers for Yom HaZikaron.IDF soldiers at a Yom HaZikaron ceremony in 2007Bedouin Soldiers Memorial
In 1949 and 1950, the first two years after the declaration of the State, memorial services for soldiers who fell in the War of Independence were held on Independence Day.[6] Services at military cemeteries were coordinated between the IDF and the Ministry of Defense. A concern arose, expressed by families of fallen soldiers, to establish a separate memorial day observance distinct from the festive celebrations of national independence. In response, and in light of public debate on the issue, Prime MinisterDavid Ben-Gurion – also serving as Minister of Defense – established in January 1951 the "Public Council for Soldiers' Commemoration". This council recommended establishing the 4th of Iyyar, the day preceding Independence Day, as the "General Memorial Day for the Heroes of the War of Independence". This proposal won government approval that same year.[6]
In 2023, the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism announced a new policy that non-Israeli Jewish victims of antisemitic terror attacks outside of Israel should officially be mourned as part of each year's Yom HaZikaron commemoration. The policy was conceived as a way for Israel to demonstrate solidarity with the Jewish diaspora.[7]
Observance
Yom HaZikaron is the national remembrance day observed in Israel for all Israeli military personnel who lost their lives in the struggle that led to the establishment of the State of Israel and for those who have been killed subsequently while on active duty in Israel's armed forces.[8] As of Yom HaZikaron 2022, that number was 24,213.[9]
Preceding evening
The day opens with a siren the preceding evening at 20:00 (8:00 pm), given that in the Hebrew calendar system, a day begins at sunset. The siren is heard all over the country and lasts for one minute, during which Israelis stop everything, including driving on highways, and stand in silence, commemorating the fallen and showing respect.[8][10]
By law, all places of entertainment are closed on the eve of Yom HaZikaron, and broadcasting and educational bodies note the solemnity of the day.[8] Regular television programs cease for the day, and the names and ranks of every soldier who died for Israel are displayed in a 24-hour television broadcast.[11]
Since the founding of the state, Israel has chosen the Red Everlasting flower (Hebrew: דם המכבים, "Blood of the Maccabees") as the national memorial flower. The flower is depicted in many memorial sites and can be seen worn as stickers on shirts and jackets throughout Yom HaZikaron. Since 2019, the non-profit organization Dam HaMaccabim has been distributing pins with the real Red Everlasting flower throughout Israel and the United States.[12][13]
Main memorial day
A two-minute siren is sounded at 11:00 the following morning, which marks the opening of the official memorial ceremonies and private remembrance gatherings at each cemetery where soldiers are buried.[14]
Many Israelis visit the resting places of loved ones throughout the day.[15]
National memorial services are held in the presence of Israel's top leadership and military personnel.[8][10]
Memorial candles are lit in homes, army camps, schools, synagogues, and public places, and flags are lowered to half staff. Throughout the day, serving and retired military personnel serve as honor guards at war memorials throughout the country, and the families of the fallen participate in memorial ceremonies at military cemeteries.[8]
Many traditional and religious Jews say prayers for the souls of the fallen soldiers on Yom HaZikaron. Special prayers prescribed by the Israeli rabbinate are recited. These include the recital of Psalm 9: "For the leader, on the death of the son," and Psalm 144: "Blessed be the Lord, My Rock, who traineth my hands for war and my fingers for battle" in addition to memorial prayers for the dead.[8][16] The official ceremony to mark the opening of the day takes place at the Western Wall.[17]
Israeli TV channels screen the names of all civilians killed in pogroms since 1851, and all fallen from 1860 (considered the date of the beginning of the Yishuv by the Israeli Ministry of Defense), in chronological order (rank, name, Hebrew date deceased and secular date) over the course of the day.[18] Originally, this was done by the Israeli Broadcasting Authority's Channel 33; once the IBA was dissolved and replaced by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, the screening itself was moved to KAN 11 in lieu of Makan 33. The day officially draws to a close at sundown (between 19:00 and 20:00; 7–8 p.m.) in a ceremony at the national military cemetery on Mount Herzl, marking the start of Israel Independence Day,[15] when the flag of Israel is returned to full staff.[citation needed]
Scheduling Yom HaZikaron right before Independence Day is intended to remind people of the price paid for independence and of what was achieved with the soldiers' sacrifice.[19] This transition shows the importance of this day among Israelis, most of whom have served in the armed forces, or have a connection with people who were killed during their military service.[citation needed]
Timing
To avoid the possibility of Sabbath desecration should either Yom HaZikaron or Independence Day take place on Saturday night, both are observed one or two days earlier (the 3rd and 4th, or the 2nd and 3rd, of Iyar) when the 5th of Iyar falls on a Friday or Saturday (Shabbat). Likewise, when Yom HaZikaron falls on Saturday night/Sunday day, both observances are rescheduled to one day later (the 5th and 6th of Iyar).[20] This means that Yom HaZikaron is only actually observed on the 4th of Iyar if that date is a Tuesday. One time this occurred was in 2020 and again in 2023.[2
Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) was an extraordinarily meticulous craftsman, a biting political activist and unapologetic propagandist, a skilled cartoonist and painstaking caricaturist, and a successful commercial artist and book illustrator. His sui generis work is notable for its rejection of contemporary avant-garde artistic styles in favor of medieval painting, particularly as expressed in illuminated Renaissance manuscripts. Noted for its refined draftsmanship and decorative calligraphy, his illustrations and caricature work are celebrated for their rich diversity of brilliant and wondrous color, which exhibit the luminosity of medieval Gothic stained-glass windows; for their meticulous attention to the most minute detail; for their beautifully decorative Hebrew lettering; and for their keen fidelity to Jewish tradition and legend. All these characteristics come together in his famous Haggadah, which is recognized as one of the greatest works of Jewish art in history. Exhibited here is the frontispiece and the page featuring Dayenu from the author's copy of the Szyk Haggadah.
See you tomorrow bli neder
We need Mashiach now!
What is disliked by you, don't do to others. Be nice and kind and smile!
