Yom HaZikaron

For its dramatic setting and its architecture, this has long been among my very favorite temples:

“Oakland California Temple Opens Doors to the Public After Renovation: This house of the Lord was first dedicated in 1964 by Church President David O. McKay”

And here’s a welcome piece about another temple for Utah:

“Saratoga Springs Utah Temple Plans Provided: Location is identified as plans are filed with city”

(I may eventually be able to see the temple from my front yard.)

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In other more or less Church-related news:

“Worldwide Children and Youth Initiative on Track for 2020”

“Watch: The Mind-Blowing Hip Hop Routine That Landed the Cougarettes 2nd in the World”

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And here’s a curious opinion piece from USA Today:

“We can protect LGBTQ people and religious freedom. Pete Buttigieg and Utah show the way.”

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Just minutes ago — it being Tuesday, 7 May 2019 — we heard the siren marking the beginning of Yom HaZikaron, the Israeli Memorial Day.  (It shouldn’t be confused with Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom HaShoah, which occurred on 1-2 May 2019.)  Lasting sixty seconds and heard throughout Israel, the siren actually sounds on what, to non-Jews, would seem the evening that precedes the actual Yom HaZikaron.  However, as the opening chapters of Genesis indicate, “days” begin for Jews with the sunsets of the evenings before them.

Yom HaZikaron is the national day of remembrance that is observed in Israel for all Israeli military personnel who were killed in the fighting that led to the establishment of the State of Israel and also for all those who have been killed since then while on active duty in Israel’s armed forces.  That figure is currently around 25,000 — which, for a country the (small) size of Israel, represents a considerable loss.  Of late, all Israeli civilian victims of terrorism have been commemorated during the holiday, as well.

While the siren wails, Israelis stop whatever they’re doing, including driving cars.  They pull over.  They stand silently, showing their respect for those who have fallen.

By Israeli law, all places of entertainment are closed on the eve of Yom HaZikaron — which means that they’re closed as I’m writing this — and all broadcasting services observe the day with appropriate programming.  In other words, regular television programs are suspended, and the names and ranks of every soldier who has died for Israel are featured on television over a 24-hour period.  (We were unable to visit the Israel Museum this afternoon because of the impending Yom HaZikaron.)

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I believe that the dead ought to be remembered.  Treasured, valued, and loved, even.  One of the ways in which Latter-day Saints remember the dead is with the work we do in our temples.  (By which I do not at all intend to reopen the vexatious question of vicarious work for victims of the Holocaust.)

Posted from Jerusalem, Israel