Yom Hashoah Ritual

Posted by on Jun 30, 2004 in Holidays & Holy Days, Yom HaShoah | Comments Off on Yom Hashoah Ritual

I’ve been working on a ritual for Yom HaShoah. I was originally going to begin research and work on the Mourner’s Kaddish, but this lead me to looking at Yom HaShoah.

I’m finding it remarkably difficult to actually write the ritual. I keep bursting into tears, which completely surprised me. I’ve worked through most of the ritual in my head, but now I just need to move it onto paper. I suppose with the emotional subject matter I shouldn’t be surprised that I’m responding to it.

Part of what I was exploring was how do we experience this holiday. Do we remember with joy the lives lived or do we mourn the lives lost. The path the ritual has taken is a deep mourning followed by slowly moving to joy. The beginning of the ritual is almost silent, which causes most people discomfort. The end slowly moves to song, which are eventually joyful and even silly.

My hope is that people will mourn the tragic loss of life and the horror of genocide — but then be grateful to be alive and able to prevent that kind of horror. The ritual although focused on the Holocaust will also allow acknowledgment of other genocides that have occurred throughout history.

I think it will be a different kind of ritual than I usually write. I’m relying less on the Pagan model I usually use and following a narrative idea this time. I do think more research into Jewish views and practices for mourning will enhance it in the end.


Related posts:

Yom haShoah Yom Tov- Yom Kippur Good Yom Tov I am Grateful / Yom Kippur Transformative Yom Kippur