How big is your capacity to remember? Most of us would say it is shrinking. We can’t remember where we put the car keys. We have devices to ping and call to tell us where our phones are. We may forget that story that she told and then remember that we heard it a thousand times. We may forget what his voice sounded like.

Today, this day of all days,

in one another’s company

Yizkor invites us to remember

not only who but what.

We think of our own loved ones,

those that loved us fully

and those that didn’t love us enough

and we remember to love more.

We think of the leaders of our community,

those we knew

and those on whose foundations we stand

and we remember that we are now the builders.

We think of the members of our armed forces

who fought to defend America

over her 250 years

and we remember that even without weapons

we must defend our country.

We think of people who boarded planes

and went to work

on a brilliantly sunny day 25 years ago

whose lives ended in terror by terror

and we remember that we must live life to the fullest

for we cannot know our end.

We think of the victims of the Tree of Life Shooting in Pittsburgh

who simply wanted to go to Shul on a Shabbat morning,

pray with their friends and neighbors and have a nosh at kiddush

and we remember not the fear of dying by antisemitism

but the joy of living a Jewish life.

We remember the Israeli victims of October 7

those whose lives were taken in a flash

or after torture

and those who suffered for months underground

in caves that would become their first burial places

and we remember that Israelis and all Jews everywhere

are our extended family.

We remember the innocents of the world

caught in the middle of war, of natural disaster, of disease

and we remember that we were all made in God’s image

so rather than saying “there but for the grace of God go I”

we say “because of God’s grace, I will act in God’s image.”

We may be forgetting the little things

but the small flicker of the Yizkor candle

and the glow of the Yahrzeit lights

remind us to remember through who

what is important.