On four holidays during the year a special prayer service called Yizkor is recited by those who have had close relatives pass away (father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, spouse). The word yizkor comes from the root ‘to remember’, and thus, on these holy days we remember our loved ones. The four holidays are Pesach, Shavuot, Shmini Atzeret (at the conclusion of Sukkot), and Yom Kippur. The first three are connected to the three Pilgrimage Festivals in the Jewish year, while all four of these days are considered days of joy. Despite the fact that it is a day of fasting and spiritual affliction, Yom Kippur, in fact, is actually called one of the two most joyous days of the year, due to the fact that on this day we receive total atonement, purification and forgiveness (Mishnah Taanit 4:8).
Although, in one sense, remembering our loved ones who are no longer with us may bring up sad memories, and thus seem to be out of alignment with the spirit of the Pilgrimage holidays, which are overtly joyous; in another sense, there is perhaps no better time to honor their memory than when we are celebrating our deep connection to tradition and a collective memory of Jewish history. Yom Kippur does of course include an element of deeply contemplating our lives, and even our eventual deaths, and thus it is, in a sense, the easiest of the four to understand as a suitable day to recite the Yizkor prayers.
However, Pesach, which is the first of the Pilgrimage holidays, contains a number of allusions to those who have passed away, and especially the concept of the resurrection of the dead, and is therefore also an especially fitting day to recite Yizkor, as we will now explain.
Before Joseph died he assured Israel that one day God would remember them in order to bring them out of Egypt and lead them to the Promised Land. He requested that, when these events occur, the Israelites would take his bones with them for burial in Israel. And in fact, on the night that Israel gathered all their possessions to leave Egypt, Moses busied himself with finding Joseph’s remains in order to take them for burial in Israel as Joseph had requested.
The Midrash states that in fact it was on the merit of Joseph’s bones that the Reed Sea split. Because Joseph, as the verse indicates, “fled” from the wife of Potifar, for which he ended up spending twelve years in jail, the Sea “fled” before his bones and split so the people of Israel could cross (Genesis 39:12; Psalms 114:3).
Yet, Moses also has a share in the merit of the Sea splitting, for he was the one who remembered Joseph. Likewise, when reciting the Yizkor prayers we not only honor our loved ones’ memory, but we draw down merit upon ourselves for having done so.
There are actually three allusions to the concept of the resurrection of the dead connected to Pesach. Although this concept is not mentioned explicitly in the Five Books of Moses, the Sages found many allusions to it in the text. One of the main examples is found in a grammatic anomaly in the Song of the Sea, sung by Moses and the people after witnessing the awesome miracles during crossing the Reed Sea to freedom. The song is introduced with the words, “Then Moses and Israel will sing this song to God…” (Exodus 15:1). Since the past tense of the rest of the song is describing events that had already happened, the Sages assert that the unusual future tense of “will sing” is a textual allusion to the resurrection of the dead, an event which will take place in the future (Sanhedrin 91b).
A second allusion to the resurrection of the dead is more explicit and is found in Ezekiel’s vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, the haftorah for the Shabbat of Pesach. The vision of the Valley of Dry Bones is certainly one of the most dramatic of all prophetic revelations. It has provided the Sages and mystics of the generations with potent images for some of their most metaphysical musings. After Ezekiel reveals a number of prophecies pertaining to the future ingathering of the exiles and the final redemption of the Jewish people, God places him in a valley of dry bones and asks him if these bones can live; a rhetorical question to which Ezekiel admits being clueless. God then commands Ezekiel to prophesy over the bones and to proclaim that they will indeed rise and live again. Ezekiel does as he is commanded, and then watches in wonder as the bones arise and assemble themselves, followed by the reconstitution of sinews and flesh to cover the bones, and finally the miraculous appearance of skin envelops them; but still there is no spirit in them. God then instructs Ezekiel to command the four winds to blow life into the bones so that they should all arise; following this act, which parallels God’s breathing the Breath of Life into Adam, a great army of people miraculously arises and is indeed brought back to life! Whereupon Ezekiel makes this further prophetic pronouncement:
“Thus, says God: ‘Behold, I am opening your graves and raising you up from your burial places, My people, and I will bring you to the soil of Israel. Then you will know that I am God, when I open your graves and when I raise you up from your graves, My people, and when I put My spirit into you, and you come to life, and I set you on your soil. Then you will know that I, God, have spoken and fulfilled…’” (37: 12-14).
This dramatic vision and prophecy is the primary textual source for the long held Jewish tradition of the “Resurrection of the Dead,” which is destined to occur in conjunction with the Messianic era. There has been much speculation as to how literal or symbolic this vision should be interpreted, as well as exactly how and when it will take place; but as with all traditions regarding the Messianic era, it will only be truly understood when it actually happens, as the prophet states: “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen that a God besides You should do such a thing for he who waits for Him” (Isaiah 64:3). It should be noted that the resurrection of the dead is the thirteenth and final principle of faith as taught by Maimonides.
A third allusion to the resurrection of the dead connected with Pesach is the tradition that it will be accomplished through tal techiya, “a dew that will enliven.” As will be described in the very next section, it is during Pesach that we make the transition in the daily recitation of the Amidah, the silent prayer, from referring to God as the one who “makes the wind blow and the rain descend,” to instead acknowledging God as the one “who makes the dew descend.” Since dew in the hot and rainless summer in Israel brings life-giving moisture to vegetation, which would die without this sustenance, it symbolically alludes to the resurrection of the dead. In fact, the statement in the Amidah, “who makes the dew descend,” is preceded by the words, “You are eternally mighty God, the Resuscitator of the dead are You, abundantly able to save,” and is followed later in that passage by the blessing, “Blessed are You God, who resuscitates the dead.”
When we go from a state of abject slavery to freedom on Pesach it is akin to being resurrected from the grave of futility and powerlessness to a life of empowerment and renewed hope. Thus, the concept of the resurrection of the dead is much broader than a vague tradition of some future event but is rather part and parcel of our present reality. When nature awakens in the spring from its long winter of seeming lifelessness, this is also a type of resurrection of the dead, which further underscores why Pesach must occur in the spring.
All of the above allusions to death and the promise of resurrection at Pesach time are thus deeply connected to reciting the Yizkor prayers when we add merit to the souls of our departed loved ones by remembering them, and in turn draw down their merit upon ourselves.
