El Malei Rachamim

If you're talking, if you're saying the tefillah to the Ribono Shel Olam, say Rabbi Dr. Moshe Abeinu when you...

So let's say they say El malei rachamim.

So they say HaRav HaGaon.

When you're talking to Ribono Shel Olam, you should leave out all the titles for the, for the other people.

I remember when my father passed away, so we had a funeral, and he, he, he was the teacher for many years.

So, uh, so Mr. Joel was the president at that time, so he didn't know my father, but, uh, so he had a nice voice.

So they said he should say El malei rachamim.

So they told me should only say my father's name, El malech ben Moshe.

And just as generations of Jews have dedicated study and learning to the memory of those we have lost, we dedicate tonight's program and the learning and conversation we share to the memory of the victims of October 7th.

Rabbi Karen Kadar, a Chicago area rabbi, poet, and writer who lived for many years in Israel, in her poem El Malei Rachamim, written in remembrance of October 7th, gives voice to the individual lives behind the enormity of that day.

And I quote to you, in blessed memory of you, those hiding in the fields and bushes and the joggers out for a run and the moms and dads making breakfast for their toddlers in their kitchen and the parents in their safe rooms holding the door handles for hours and the babies, innocent infants and the grandfathers and the grandmothers and entire families, parents watching their children die, children watching their parents and entire neighborhoods of young adults who are waiting to begin their lives.

So many lives, so many families, so many futures interrupted.

Qadar gathers them into the words of the ancient memorial prayer, El malei rachamim, have compassion upon your souls.

El malei rachamim, have compassion upon our broken hearts.

Yehi zichran baruch, may their memories be a blessing, and may we yet see a future of greater safety, dignity, and peace for their families, for Israel, and for the entire region.

In the email you'll get right after tonight's program, there are two extraordinary pieces related to October 7th, one by Dennis Ross and the other by Brett Stevens.

So the way that Hannah and I thought we would begin today, we are going to begin and we are going to end with a prayer.

We're going to begin with an El Malei Rachamim.

This is the traditional prayer for the dead.

The specific El Malei Rachamim we're going to use today, we also used last year on Chutzpadh.

It was written by Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld after October 7th to encompass not only the innocent Israeli Jewish life that was lost, but also innocent Palestinian life that was lost as well.

So typically, when we do our meditation at the end of the episode, I tell people to go on about your day, whatever you're doing, to continue doing it, but I'm gonna say the opposite right now.

If you can pause for a second, whatever it is you're doing, maybe you even can pull your car over to the side of the road, if possible, stop doing the dishes, to really hold in your heart some of the tremendous amount of pain that has been expressed over the course of the last three years.

El Malei Rachamim, God full of mercy, womb of the world, in whom there is room enough for all life to flourish, from whom there is blessing enough for all life to be nourished.

So in this world, the godliness also reaches, and you have the Ma'ala of Eir Chezed.

And for these reasons, true Yesh MeAyin is davka in El Maleh Rachamim.

He said two things here.

I'm not sure what the difference between these two things are, but the two things were is that Ach creates Yesh MeAyin in Asiyah, and Kav creates Yesh MeAyin in Asiyah.