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Yom Ha'Zikaron
Community Program Suggestions

Prayer for the Welfare of soldiers in the IDF:
May He who blessed our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, bless the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces who keep guard over our country and cities of our Lord from the border of Lebanon to the Egyptian desert and from the Mediterranean Sea to the approach to the Arava, be they on land, air, or sea. May the Almighty deliver us our enemies who arise against us, may the Holy One, blessed be He, preserve them and save them from all sorrow and peril, from danger and ill. May He send them blessing and success in all their endeavors, may He deliver to them those who hate us and crown them with salvation and victory, so that the saying may be fulfilled through them, "For the Lord, your God, who walks with you and to fight your enemies for you and to save you," and let us say, Amen


Yizkor:
May God remember his sons and daughters who endangered their lives in the days of struggle prior to the establishment of the State of Israel and may He remember the soldiers of Tzahal who fell in the wars of Israel. May the people of Israel keep them in their heart and may their memory be a blessing. May they commemorate their lost youth, their bravery and valor, their devotion and self-sacrifice, which ended on the battlefield. May the memory of the loyal and valiant heroes of freedom and victory be sealed forever within the hearts of Israel.

Memorial Service for the Members of the Israel Defense Forces:
O God, full of mercy, Who dwells on high, grant proper rest in the wings of the Divine Presence - in the lofty level of the holy and the pure ones, who shine like the glow of the firmament - for the souls of the men and women of the Israel Defense Forces who met their deaths in the wars of Israel, in action of defense, retaliation and security, while fulfilling their missions and during their service, and to the souls of all the fighters of the underground organizations and the fighting units in the nation's battles, and all the men and women of the intelligence community and the security and police forces who gave their lives in the sanctification of God's Name and, with help of the God of the armies of Israel, brought about the rebirth of the nation and the state and the redemption of the Land and the City of God, as well as all those who were murdered, in Israel and abroad, by murderers of the terrorist organizations, by virtue of our prayers for the ascent of their souls. May the Merciful One therefore shelter them in the shelter of his wings for eternity; and may He bind their souls in the Bond of Life. The Lord is their heritage, Eden in their resting places, may their merit reflect on all of Israel, and may they meet their destiny in the End of Days. Now let us respond: Amen.


Selected Readings

And My Brother Said Nothing by Amir Gilboa

My brother came back from the field
Dressed in gray. And I was afraid that
My dream might prove false, so at once
I began to count his wounds.
And my brother said nothing.

Then I rummaged in the pockets of the trenchcoat
And found a field-dressing, stained and dry.
And on frayed postcard, her name -
Beneath a picture of poppies.
And my brother said nothing.

Then I undid the pack
And took out his belongings, memory by memory.
Hurrah, my brother, my brother, the hero,
Now I've found your decorations!
Hurrah, my brother, my brother, the hero,
I shall proudly hymn your name!
And my brother said nothing.
And my brother said nothing.

And his blood was crying out from the ground.


The Silver Platter by Nathan Alterman
"The State is not handed to a people on a silver platter" - Chaim Weizmann, first President of Israel

The Earth grows still.
The lurid sky slowly pales
Over smoking borders.
Heartsick, but still living, a people stand by
To greet the uniqueness
Of the miracle.
Readied, they wait beneath the moon.
Wrapped in awesome joy, before the light.
--Then, soon,
A girl and boy step forward,
And slowly walk before the waiting nation.

In work garb and heavy-shod
They climb
In stillness.
Wearing yet the dress of battle, the grime
Of aching day and fire-filled night

Unwashed, weary unto death, not knowing
Rest,
But wearing youth like dewdrops in their hair.
--Silently the two approach and stand.
Are they of the quick or of the dead?

Through wondering tears, the people stare.
"Who are you, the silent two?"
And they reply: "We are the silver platter
Upon which the Jewish State was served to you."

And speaking, fall in shadow at the nation's
Feet.
Let the rest in Israel's chronicles be told.


The Paratroopers Cry by Hayim Hefer

This wall has heard many prayers
This wall has seen the fall of many other walls
This wall has felt the touch of mourning women
This wall has felt petitions lodged between its stones.
This wall saw Rabbi Yehuda Halevi trampled before it
This wall has seen Caesars rise and fall
But this wall had never seen paratroopers cry.

This wall saw them tired and wrung out
This wall saw them wounded, mutilated
Running to it with excitement, cries and silence.
And creeping as torn creatures in the alleys of the
Old City
And they are covered with dust and with
Parched lips
They whisper, "If I forget thee, if I forget thee Jerusalem."
They are swift as eagles and strong as lions
And their tanks - the fiery chariot of Elijah the Prophet
They pass by with noise
They pass by a stream
They remember the 2, 000 awful years
In which we had not even a wall to place our tears before -

And here they stand before it and breathe in dust
Here they look at it with sweet pain
And tears run down and they look at one
Another perplexed
How does it happen that paratroopers cry?
How does it happen that they touch this wall
With great emotion?
How does it happen that their weeping
Changes to song?
Perhaps because these boys of 19,
Born at the same time as the state,
Carry on their shoulders - 2,000 years.


Yehuda Amichai

We forget where we came from. Our Jewish
names from the Exile give us away,
bring back the memory of flower and fruit, medieval cities,
metals, knights who turned to stone, roses,
spices whose scent drifted away, precious stones, lots of red,
handicrafts long gone from the world
(the hands are gone too).

Circumcision does it to us,
as in the Bible story of Shechem and the sons of Jacob,
so that we go on hurting all our lives.

What are we doing, coming back here with this pain?
Our longings were drained together with the swamps,
the desert blooms for us, and our children are beautiful.
Even the wrecks of ships that sunk on the way
reached this shore,
even winds did. Not all the sails.

What are we doing
in this dark land with its
yellow shadows that pierce the eyes?
(Every now and then someone says, even after forty
or fifty years: "The sun is killing me.")

What are we doing with these souls of mist, with these names,
with our eyes of forests, with our beautiful children,
with our quick blood?

Spilled blood is not the roots of trees
but it's the closest thing to roots
we have.

--From The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai, Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell (eds.), New York: Harper and Row, 1986.
© American Zionist Movement 2001, all rights reserved
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