[Avodah] Rabbi Friedman - The Soul and the Afterlife: Where Do We Go From Here?

[Professor L. Levine]

A talk on this topic given by Rabbi Feldman is at


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzFUXKk2B4I&feature=youtu.be

[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YzFUXKk2B4I/maxresdefault.jpg]<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzFUXKk2B4I&feature=youtu.be>

Rabbi Friedman - The Soul and the Afterlife: Where Do We ...<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzFUXKk2B4I&feature=youtu.be>
www.youtube.com
Sinai Indaba is an annual Torah convention of the foremost international Jewish leaders and thinkers. See more at: www.Sinai-Indaba.com Dubbed a "superstar" ...

Beginning at about 9 minutes and 30 seconds into the talk, Rabbi Feldman talks about how the soul needs  us to say Yizkor and will not allow people "pull strings" to get people l to say Yizkor.


These statements have raised questions in my mind.


>From  http://booksnthoughts.com/the-relatively-recent-origin-of-yizkor/

What is the origin of Yizkor?

The custom of reciting Yizkor on the solemn holiday of Yom Kippur began in Germany in the eleventh century following the devastation of Rhineland Jewry during the Crusades, a trauma that was exacerbated in the fourteenth century when Jews were butchered because non-Jews were convinced that they caused the Black Plague. It was originally a personal family prayer recited to remember their dead, but it soon became a prayer recited within a community in synagogues on Yom Kippur.

 The custom of reciting Yizkor spread eastward very quickly and Polish Jews supplemented it with a prayer remembering the Jewish victims of the 1648 Cossack massacre under the leadership of Bogdan Chmielnicki. The Polish Jews also extended the recital of Yizkor beyond the sole recitation on Yom Kippur to the last days of the three festivals Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot.

The additional recitals were made because of popular feelings, but it raised a problem that has not been satisfactorily answered: Yizkor can fit into the Yom Kippur services because Yom Kippur is a solemn day, but the three other holidays are happy days, why add a somber prayer to mar these holidays.
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Since Yizkor began in the 11th century, I find Rabbi Feldman's  statements about Yizkor and the soul  curious, if not misleading.   What did the soul do before the 11th century?  I do not know, and I doubt that you or Feldman know.

I wonder if the Sefardim say Yizkor.  I do not think that they do. I would be willing to wager that Yemenites don't say Yizkor.  If so,  what about the souls of Sefardim or Yemenites?

YL

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