How A Jewish Memorial Candle Is Lit

The yahrzeit candle in a glass. Yahrzeit is the anniversary of a death, counted by the Hebrew calendar. On the evening before, the children light a candle that burns for a full day. Rabbi Maurice Lamm writes that if all the children are in one house one candle suffices, but out of respect for the parent it is preferable for each child to light his own. Shop candles usually come in a glass or a small tin. The icon shows the glass form.

The seven-day shiva candle. The Reform movement notes that memorial customs are customarily observed for parents, siblings, spouses and children. During shiva, the first seven days of mourning, the house of mourning burns a larger candle that lasts the whole seven days. The icon shows that tall candle, to tell it apart from the one-day candle.

A closed Torah scroll in its mantle. The Shulchan Arukh (Yoreh De'ah 340:8) places a teacher among those for whom a student rends his garment, and for the teacher from whom he gained most of his wisdom the tear is never resewn. The same passage records that common practice in many lands follows the more lenient view. The closed Torah scroll is the library's own choice to stand for what a teacher hands on. The sources do not tie a Torah scroll to remembering a teacher.

A volume of Mishnah. Ilui nishmat means the elevation of the soul. The living do good on behalf of the departed: Kaddish, tzedakah, Torah study, and Mishnah above all. The word Mishnah (משנה) has the same letters as neshamah (נשמה), soul. Chabad also records the custom of studying chapters of Mishnah whose initial letters spell the Hebrew name of the departed.

The tzedakah box. Yizkor means Remember. The prayer is said in synagogue four times a year: Yom Kippur, Shemini Atzeret, the last day of Passover and the second day of Shavuot. Its core is a pledge to give tzedakah after the holiday. Rabbi Moshe Zywica of the Orthodox Union writes that the most important part of the service is that pledge. Tzedakah at root means righteousness or justice, not optional charity. The tzedakah box, pushke in Yiddish, is found in homes and synagogues.

A stone laid on the headstone. Rabbi Yehuda Shurpin writes that placing a stone or a pebble on the tombstone honours the deceased by letting people know the grave has recently been visited. He explains why a stone and not flowers: beauty and possessions are left behind, and only the accumulated spiritual wealth remains, like a rock that stays forever. The source sets no number of stones.

The yellow memorial candle. Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, falls on 27 Nisan. Rabbi P.J. Schwartz writes that many families and congregations light yellow yahrzeit candles, and that in other communities six yellow candles are lit for the six million who were killed. At the state ceremony at Yad Vashem, survivors light six torches. The icon shows a plain yellow candle and does not draw the yellow star.