Post-Shavuot musings, part 2: Israel vs. Diaspora practice, torah readings and yizkor

[rhu]

Because in the Diaspora today was the second day of Shavuot, but in Israel it was an ordinary Shabbat, we are now off by one week in the order of Torah portions. (In a few months, we in the Diaspora will double up the portions of Matot and Mas'ai, and Israel won't double them up, and we'll be back in sync.) So until then, if an Israeli is visiting the Diaspora, or a Diaspora Jew is visiting Israel, which parsha should they learn for "twice as written and once in translation"?

And I got to wondering when we started saying Yizkor four times a year, and not just on Yom Kippur. Yizkor, frankly, doesn't strike me as appropriate for a regel. The Shulchan Aruch doesn't mention it, but the Mishna Berurah does. The very last comment of the MB for vol. 5, section 494.3 (Prayers for Shavuot), comment 17, says: umazkirin neshamot v'omrim av harachamim beyom sheni, "We remember souls and say 'Father of Mercies' on the second day", uvchol makom shekorin kawl habchor mazkirin neshamot "and in all instances that we read [the Torah passage] 'every firstborn' we remember souls" sheyesh bo matnat yad, vnodrim tzedakah "because in it [in that portion] is giving from one's hand, and [when one recites yizkor] one vows [to give] money [for the poor]."

So I looked up in the parsha, and the connection is tenuous at best. But it does correspond with our practice of reciting Yizkor on the last day of Pesach, the second day of Shavuot, and Shemini Atzeret. So the next obvious question is what do they do in Israel, when kol habchor is never read for a regel.

The Koren machzor for the shalosh regalim says that on Shavuot and Shemini Atzeret one only says Yizkor in the Diaspora, but for Pesach the Koren machzor indicates to say Yizkor on the seventh day.

This conflicts with the Koren siddur, as well as the Siddur Tefilat Yosef, which both say we recite Yizkor on Shemini Atzeret (both in Israel and the Diaspora), on the seventh (Israel) or eighth (Diaspora) day of Pesach, and on the first (Israel) or second (Diaspora) day of Shavuot. This lacks the support of the reason given in the Mishna Berurah, though --- if in Israel we're not reading kol habchor on those days, what's the justification for saying Yizkor?

Meanwhile, it seems that this practice was not universal even in the Diaspora a hundred years ago.

Elbogen (p. 163 in the new translation) writes "From this [Yom Kippur practice] developed a special ceremony called hazkarat neshamot, 'Recalling the Souls', which is still observed in western Ashkenaz only on the Day of Atonement, and in eastern Europe on the last day of the festivals." (Emphasis mine).

My great-grandfather's (German) machzor for Shavuot says: beharbeh kehillot, uvprat lefi minhag Polen, nohagim lehazkir neshamot achar hahaftarah vomrim --- "In many congregations, and throughout those who follow the Polish custom, it is the custom to remember the souls after the [reading of the] haftarah and to say..." which would mostly agree with Elbogen.

And I just got that copy of the Rödelheim siddur that I ordered a month ago, and it doesn't have Yizkor in it at all, as far as I can tell. (It has some other goodies that I'll blog about later.) This again would agree with Elbogen.

So, to summarize: It appears that 100 years ago, the practice of saying Yizkor on the regalim was widespread in Poland and starting to make inroads into Germany; the Mishna Berurah attempts to provide what looks to me like a pretty weak asmachta to justify it; Israeli practice is not uniform even within the same publisher's books but seems to tend towards establishing the practice on the earlier day even though the Mishna Berurah's asmachta doesn't apply. And I'm no closer to an answer to why Yizkor is an appropriate liturgical addition for a regel, a day when we're supposed to have unalloyed simchah, a day when eulogies are forbidden even if, God forbid, there has to be a funeral.

Comments

[lucretia-borgia.livejournal.com]

Because it gets everyone to come to shul on the 2nd day?

No, I'm actually serious. It's the sort of thing that I could see being established and not protested because of the good result.

We've got plenty of other contradictions in practice --the fast of the firstborn set over against the no-fasting-in-Nisan rule-- and this one's harmless enough. Fairly few folks will have their grief so fresh that it will really disturb their simcha to say yizkor, and if it is, saying yizkor will counteract the grief at the memory of previous e.g. Shavuot days when that person was present.

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

That's what I figured, too, but I'd love to see some sources on it.

[abbasegal.livejournal.com]

At the two shuls in Israel that I have davened in, we have done Yizkor on the first day where necessary (e.g. we did it for Shavuot on Friday). Granted, these are both Ashkenazi minyanim -- I don't know what the Sefardi or the Edot HaMizrach shuls do.

[cellio]

I've wondered about yizkor too. It seems especially odd on Shavuot; at least with the other two you've had a week for the festival to peak and start to wind down.

(Psst -- the sync-up will be Chukat-Balak at the beginning of July.)