Yizkor sermons tend to be challenging for rabbis because we give a lot of them.  We say Yizkor four times a year.  If you do the math year after year, that is a lot of Yizkor sermons, and what is there new to say?  What is there to say that we haven’t said before?  That you haven’t heard before?

I wish we had that problem again this year.  Unfortunately we don’t.  This is a Yizkor with an entirely fresh angle.  The last time we said Yizkor was October 7.  I don’t need to tell you that the months since October 7 have been, and continue to be, the most harrowing for the Jewish people, since the Shoah. What is the impact of this hard new chapter on our private Yizkor mediations now?