Yom Hazikaron Memorial Service - טקס ליום הזיכרון

A memorial service with letters, poems, reflections, and facts from soldiers and their families- a complete, ready-made memorial service

טקס יום הזכרון

Today, the 5^th of Eyar, is Israel’s Memorial Day for those who fell in the country’s battles, and in attacks against her. Every year the people of Israel remember the fallen who sacrificed their lives for Israel’s inalienable right for independence.

Please rise for the lowering of the flag and for the siren proclaiming a moment of silence.

PLEASE BE SEATED

Yom Hazikaron, a day of remembrance for those who fell in the struggle for the establishment of the State of Israel and its defense, is marked during the 24 hours preceding Yom Ha’atzmaut .

On Yom Hazikaron, the entire nation remembers its debt and expresses eternal gratitude to its sons and daughters and honors those who gave their lives for the achievement of the country’s independence and its continued existence.

Please rise for reciting the yizkor, lighting a remembrance candle and El Male Rachamim

I call upon rabbi _________________ to recite the Yizkor.

קריין:             יִזְכּור עַם יִשֹרָאֵל אֶת בָּנָיו וּבְנוֹתָיו, אֲשֶר חֵרְפוּ נַפְשָם בַּמַאֲבָק עַל

הַמְדִינָה בַּדֶרֶךְ,  אֶת חַיָילֵי צְבָא הַהֲגַנָה לְיִשְרָאֵל, אֲשֶר נָפְלוּ בְּמִלְחָמוֹת יִשְרָאֵל.

יִזְכּוֹר יִשְרָאֵל וְיִתְבָּרַךְ בְּזַרְעוֹ וְיֶאֱבַל עַל זִיו הָעֲלוּמִים וְחֶמְדַת הַגְבוּרָה

וּקְדוּשַת הָרָצוֹן וּמְסִירוּת הַנֶפֶש, אֲשֶר נִסְפּוּ בַּמַעֲרָכוֹת הַכְּבֵדוֹת.

יִהְיוּ גִיבּוֹרֵי הַדְרוֹר וְהַנִיצָחוֹן הַנֶאֱמָנִים וְהָאַמִיצִים חֲתוּמִים בְּלֵב

יִשְרָאֵל לְדוֹר וָדוֹר.

We light the remembrance candle to honor all the heroes and heroines of our generation; those who fought and died in the wars to defend the State of Israel, and the innocent victims of terror attacks

I call upon rabbi ________________ to light the remembrance candle and to say El male rachamim.

אל מלא רחמים

Please be seated

Tomorrow, as we do every year, one day before the Independence Day, we’ll go to the cemeteries, to feel again those very special moments of identification with the memory of the sons who left the entire nation bereaved. The sadness of silence remains within me during the whole holiday.

You might say, that I love those moments more than I love the happiness and the joy of the holiday, Those moments penetrate to the deepest reasons of our lives. By seeing those who left life – you penetrate to the meaning of your own life.

The heart tends to think and live with those that left you- more than those who live with you today.

This is a sad truth. You find yourself identifying with people after they are gone, and have left their own reflection in your soul, more than when they were alive.

When I die

 a part of me

Will die in you,

Will die in you.

Because all of us,

Yes, all of us are one living tapestry.      

And if one of us leaves

Something dies within us

And something stays with him.  

The helicopter disaster

On the 4^th of February in 1997, two Israeli helicopters which were on their way to a military activity in Lebanon , collapsed over an Israeli ‘Moshav’ in northern Israel.

All of the 73 soldiers who were on the helicopters were killed in the disaster.

17 year old Shani Ben Shem, wrote in memory of her brother, Kobi Ben Shem, who was killed in the helicopter disaster on the 4^th of February, 1997:

8 memorial days have passed, and you Kobi are no longer with us.

I can’t understand, how does time fly so fast?

The memories are becoming distant.

It’s hard to find the words that can explain the pain and the yearning for the loving, funny, caring  brother, who is missing from my life.

Every year when memorial day is approaching, the atmosphere around the house becomes weird, pressure mixed with suffering.

But for me, this year is even stranger.

Although it sounds ridiculous, today I’m celebrating my 17^th birthday. Yes today, Kobi, on this very day.

What kind of a reality is this?

How am I supposed to celebrate and be happy on the same day which is yours and for your memory?

Just like the transition between memorial day to independence day, that will come in a few hours, the happiness and the pain that are in every moment in our lives.

I’m 17 years old today, but still can’t understand what’s going on in this world.

And how to deal with this kind of reality.

The hardest thought is that I probably won’t get a real answer that can explain to me,

What’s going on in the world and why?

The books that I will read , and all that I will learn could help, could direct, but there will never be a real answer  to my questions-

Why you are gone?

Why now?

And who is responsible for that?

I have so many questions and no one to answer them.

Kobi-

I miss being with you even more, now that I have grown up and I can understand.

I would have wanted to hear your opinion on many things, I would have wanted you to know my friends, to be with me.

But time flies so fast, and the world continues, your friends are already married, and  will soon have children.

But you , ,,, you stay 21.  And I remain here with a lot of questions and no answers.

It is not true that life goes on, by Yair Lapid

It is not true that life goes on, they always say that but it is never true.

When you lose someone, your life, the way you knew it, will never be the same. Your family is still yours but it is different now. Your parents are different. The way you sit around the table , the way you remember the trip to Greece, with the photo album of all the hilarious  pictures you took, which has now changed into a memorial document.

I really don't think that life goes on. People keep asking you the same simple questions such as "how are you"? and you know they actually mean either "we know" or "we're here for you". Every time you're sad, they all stop by to cheer you up and you don't know how to tell them you definitely don't need a support –group but you just want to hide under your blanket for an hour.

Who can possibly think that life goes on…? even you can never be the same .You are the one who lost a relative .You are the one who watches alone the old TV show which you always used to watch together.

You're the one that when you laugh they say you managed to get over it. When you're busy, they say you are really o.k. and if you leave home for more than two weeks, they say you probably ran away.

It's not true that life goes on, even your past is being edited. Every time you tell them how you took the bus together on some trip, you find yourself debating whether to mention him as "my brother" or, "my late brother". Sometimes you just leave him out of the story because you don't want any embarrassing moments.

Sometimes, when you meet someone who was out of the country for a long time and he asks you how your brother is feeling and you just answer "he's not feeling anymore", it's you who need to comfort the shocked guy and say that "life goes on". but it doesn't..

It is not true that life goes on, it stops and then re-starts, differently. 

Only 5 Minutes by Yfat Nagar

G-d, if you allowed me

To choose only one wish

From a sea of wishes,

I would have one meager request:

“Give me back five minutes with him.”

In the first minute I would tell him that

I know he had to leave.

And in the second minute I would tell him that

I will never accept his going.

And in the third minute, I am angry about him being chosen.

And in the fourth minute I would tell him that I love him so much.

And in the fifth minute, G-d, I would beg of you;

Don’t take him away from me.

6.  שיר קליפ-  רציתי לעוף

7. Words that Anat Tom’s mother wrote for him a week before he was killed, and after he was flying above their house, and had waved  goodbye.

Israel is sleeping and you are watching it.

It so peaceful up there

And you and your friends, so quietly

Circling above, going out and coming back

Without a supersonic boom, in your elegance

Going on the mission to stop evil,

And protect all of us from the danger.

When you were a baby, I was awake for hours

I would look on you sleeping

Watching that nothing will happen to you.

And now. You’re looking and watching us.

On the 12^th of July, at nine thirty am, the Hezbollah terrorists opened heavy fire on the Northern settlements in Israel, as a diversion  for  the planned kidnapping of  two Israeli soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.

The Israeli government decided to start a military operation in Lebanon, in order to return the abducted soldiers, and to secure the northern border of Israel.

Israel mourned the loss of 169 of its people in the war.

סרטון "ארים ראשי"
המכתב של גד גזרא הי"ד

Every combat soldier carries a letter with him to be sent "just in case." The following was sent by 23-year-old Sergeant Gadi Ezra to his fiancée Galit Meislik.

Dear Galiti If you receive this letter, it is a sign that something has happened to me. This morning we received the news that the military operation that was planned for yesterday will take place, with God's help, today. I told you that the operation had changed, and that it was different than the one originally planned - I told you this, dearest, because I did not want to worry you. It was very hard for me to not tell you the truth, but I preferred this to making you worry. (The Gemara says one may distort the facts for the sake of peace - "Meshanin mipnei hashalom," also the inner peace of someone you love more than anything on earth.)

My beloved, on one hand I feel that there is nothing more that I want than to be with you—to love you and to establish with you a home and a family. But on the other hand, there isn't anything that I would want more than to participate in this military operation and to strike those terrorists a blow so strong they will never again even consider carrying out a terrorist attack. To do this there is a price that we must pay—and I am willing to be this price.

Don't be angry with me, my love, but at moments like this your feelings for Klal Yisrael are supposed to guide you—and you must relate to this evil as if your private life does not exist. "Men in King David's army divorced their wives before going off to war" (See L'emunat Iteinu—Part 4).

My beautiful one, my only distress is that you will be sorry; and that I will not be the one who will make you happy. Because there isn't anything in the world you deserve more. I therefore request, my beloved, that you should be happy! You will be joyful, you will love and you will blossom—because that is what you deserve. I will always watch over you—and I will make sure that you will meet the man who will give you more happiness than I have given you.

My darling, everything that happens is ultimately for the best, and if this is the will of the Almighty, then that's the way it has to be. What is left for us is to accept it with love.

I want you to know that you will be my last thought at that moment when [what] will happen to me takes place. And I will leave this world with the knowledge that I was the happiest person I possibly could be—due to you. [It is] you who brought me to the highest summit of joy and happiness; and it is you who [helped] me to reach accomplishments that I only dreamed about.

I thank you for all the good and happiness you have inspired me with when we were together. It is not that we were together, but we are always together—we were together before we came into this world, and we are also together when we separate from it. Remember this, my dearest, we are always, always together, because the root of our souls is one.

('Kol ma d'avid Rahmana l'tav avid.") Everything is for the best, even this. I promise you that wherever I am, it is the most wonderful place. I am not suffering and I am not regretful. My only sorrow is the sorrow caused to those who are left behind—to you, the family and friends.

Please spread this message, my dearest, "Don't despair—be always happy." This is what I request of you, even if it is difficult. I know that I am able to ask this of you, because I know the natural happiness and joy that shines from within you always. It is your joy and happiness which I so much love in you.

Gadi Ezra was killed in Jenin on Kaf Bet Sivan the forth of April two thousand and two. The letter was provided by Dr. David Zangen of Hadassah Hospital, who was with him in his final moments.

מי ידע שכך יהיה

It is not a dream,
the day will come,
a day for which we have waited two thousand years,
the final war.

We return home,
return to our friends.
take off our olive drabs
and move on to other days.

If only this could be,
that a few nights in the field
would move us on to other days

and see the dove with an olive leaf.

The decision to commemorate the fallen soldiers the day before the day of independence was not an easy one but very symbolic. On this day we remember those who gave up their lives so that we could celebrate this day peacefully.

In one of the transition ceremonies between the memorial day to the independence day, David Ben Gurion- the first prime minister of Israel once said: ”there is only one drop of consolation : their lives and death weren’t for nothing-  and as long as Am Israel is alive, he will carry their memory in his heart forever.”

Please rise for Hatikva. 

 This concludes the Yom Hazikaron Memorial Service.