CEMETERY MEMORIAL SERVICE ON SECOND DAY ROSH HASHONAH

QUESTION:

Our congregation plans to have a congregational memorial service in our cemetery on the second day of Rosh Hashonah. Does this type of service on that date comport with the traditional spirit of Rosh Hashonah, or should the service be discouraged as contravening the mood of the holiday? (Asked by Rabbi Elbert Sapinsley, Blucfield, West Virginia.)

ANSWER:

IT IS NOT CLEAR from the question whether this cemetery memorial service on the second day of Rosh Hashonah is one that had been held by the congregation in past years, or whether this is the first time that such a service is being proposed. If it is a service which already has been observed for a number of years, then it already has some standing as an established local minhag. Such a local minhag always has some validity unless, of course, there are certain strong objections to it. However, if this is the first time that such a service is proposed, then it should be subjected to still closer scrutiny as to its possible disharmony with Jewish tra dition. In either case, we are dealing here with a type of service which at present is not widely observed in Jewish life, nor is it spoken of in Jewish traditional literature. Therefore it must be judged on the basis of a careful analysis of the mood of the New Year.

Does the mood of Rosh Hashonah include any element of festivity and happiness which might be marred by such a memorial service? The Shulchan Aruch is quite clear on the matter. In Orah Hayyim 597:1 the law states definitely: “We eat and drink and rejoice on the New Year, and we may not fast on it.” This law is based upon Ezra’s statement when he addressed the people on the New Year (Nehemiah 8 : 9 -10) . He said: “This day is holy to the Lord. Mourn not nor weep, neither be ye grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” This festive mood is also expressed in our custom of eating apples dipped in honey and of asking for a “year that is good and sweet.”

Since, then, Rosh Hashonah is a day on which “we are forbidden to grieve,” does it not seem that a communal cemetery service would contravene the mood of the festival? This question is answered clearly in the synagogue’s tradition. Fasting is indeed forbidden, but a communal memorial service would not at all mar the mood of the day. This is evident from the services on Passover, Shavuos, and Succos. These three festivals are completely joyous. Not only are we forbidden to grieve on them (as the Shulchan Aruch ordains for Rosh Hashonah), but we are ordered positively to rejoice on them and do nothing to spoil the happiness of the festivals. Yet in spite of this mandated rejoicing, the last day of each of these three festivals has a communal memorial service for the dead, namely, the Yizkor. This memorial service was originally held on Yom Kippur alone, a day on which it was completely appropriate. But from Yom Kippur it spread to these three festivals.

Surely this memorial service, Yizkor, would seem to be a violation of the mandate to rejoice on the three festivals. However, the contradiction in mood is explained away to some extent by the statement of Isserles in Orah Hayyim 288:2, where he speaks of the memorial mood in relation to the Sabbath (for example, the reciting of A v Ho-Rachimim, the prayer for the martyrs). He says that to weep for the departed is not entirely sorrowful. After all, tears often relieve the heart and bring consolation. Whether or not this explanation is adequate, the fact remains that for centuries now the Yizkor, a public and personal memorial service, has been a regular part of the synagogue ritual on the three joyous pilgrimage festivals.

Now the basic mood of Rosh Hashonah is quite different from that of the three festivals. We are indeed forbidden to grieve or fast on this day. Nevertheless, the main mood of it is not joyous at all. This is to be noted from the liturgical rule that for Rosh Hashonah we must change the happy phrase regularly used in each Shemone Esra of the three pilgrimage festivals. On these festivals we use a sentence thanking God for bestowing on us “festivals of joy and seasons of gladness.” This sentence must be omitted from the Shemone Esra of the New Year. The liturgical rule is given in Tur, Orah Hayyim 582, and goes back to the authority of the Gaon Hai.

Rosh Hashonah is primarily the Yom Ha-Din, the day of solemn self-judgment. If, in the development of the liturgy, it had happened that the Yizkor service had expanded from its original place on Yom Kippur and moved to the Rosh Hashonah service, this would certainly have been more appropriate than its moving to the three pilgrimage festivals, which actually occurred. Perhaps the reason that Yizkor did not carry over to Rosh Hashonah is that Yom Kippur, which already had the service, was only a few days away and both days are a unit as “Days of Awe.” At all events, it is clear that a memorial service as here proposed would not be at all discordant with the mood of the New Year.

Besides this question of the basic mood of the festival, a second question arises. The regular synagogue Rosh Hashonah services are solemn enough. Would it not be excessive, therefore, to add another solemn service in addition to the synagogue service and outside of it? Here again tradition gives us a clear precedent. In the Middle Ages there had indeed developed a service of penitential type on Rosh Hashonah outside of and in addition to the regular synagogue liturgy. This is the widely observed Tashlich service. On the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashonah, the people go to the river, shake crumbs from their garments, and speak prayers dealing with the forgiveness of sins. This custom is comparatively new. It is not mentioned in the Mishnah or the Talmud. Nevertheless, by the Middle Ages it became firmly established. Some authorities say that the water to be visited for the Tashlich should be a lake or a river where fishes are seen to swim about, thus to convey the idea that like fishes in a net, we are caught in the toils of life and death and must repent. The penitential mood of Tashlich is certainly close to the mood of the proposed communal memorial service on Rosh Hashonah.

A third and final question needs to be mentioned. Is it appropriate that this communal memorial service should be held in the cemetery? For a communal service in the cemetery there is more of a precedent than for the Tashlich. The Talmud, in Ta’anis 16a, says that on every fast day that is proclaimed, people should go to the cemetery to pray. In fact, if there is no Jewish cemetery available, they may go to a non-Jewish cemetery, for there too they would achieve a penitential mood.

Of course Rosh Hashonah is not a fast day for which the Talmud speaks of holding cemetery services. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that among the days when it is customary and appropriate to visit the cemetery are the “Ten Days of Penitence.” Since we in Reform Judaism observe only one day of Rosh Hashonah, the second day of Rosh Hashonah may well be deemed for us to be the first day of the Days of Penitence on which cemetery visitation is traditional.

To sum up then: The mood of a communal memorial service, such as Yizkor, has spread from its original observance on Yom Kippur to the last days of the three joyous pilgrimage festivals and is not considered as marring their mood of happiness. Rosh Hashonah has some touch of the joyous holiday spirit but is mainly penitential, and therefore a communal memorial service, such as Yizkor, would have been even more fitting had it developed on that day. As for our adding a new memorial service on Rosh Hashonah to be held outside the synagogue, this too has its precedent in the post Talmudic ceremony of Tashlich. Finally, among the days deemed most appropriate to visit the cemetery are the Ten Days of Penitence; and for us, who observe one day of Rosh Hashonah, the second day of Rosh Hashonah counts as the beginning of our penitential days.

For all these reasons, one may well say that a congregational cemetery memorial service on the second day of Rosh Hashonah is not at all inappropriate and might well become an established custom among us. Possibly it might be preferable if this service is not held in the morning, when the regular Rosh Hashonah services are being held in Orthodox and Conservative synagogues, but, perhaps, on the afternoon of the second day of Rosh Hashonah, which is exactly when the Tashlich service is held when the first day of Rosh Hashonah happens to be on the Sabbath.