Yom HaZikaron

Do we really want God to remember all that we did?

The concept of heroic death is conspicuously absent in Bible. This sharply contrasts with ancient Near Eastern and Greek tropes, as well as with the book of Maccabees and modern day commemorations such as Israel’s Yom Hazikaron and America’s Memorial Day. How should we understand this difference?^[1]

A pediatric neurologist searches for the soul through the lens of current neuroscience.

A rewritten midrash reveals how 12^th century Ashkenazic Jews developed the custom of Mourner’s Kaddish as a means of saving deceased relatives from Gehenna, making heaven available to all Jews and strengthening the connections between the living and the dead.^[1]