Before Yizkor Yom Kippur Pei Vov 2025

Do not read this if you expect an edited piece. This is nothing more than ראשי פרקים. This is here only so that someone who needs a good intro to Yizkor on Yom Kippur has a framework that worked well for me. I was up at five in the morning on Yom Kippur because I had nothing new (in a place where they remember what I said in the past!) I came across Rav Carlebach's vort, and I was saved.

Synopsis: Baruch sheim; Hashem's name as written in the Mikdash; meisim being judged;  the line between olam hazeh and olam haba, the line between the world of gashmiyus and the world of ruchniyus, the line between the past and the present, the living and the dead, the line is erased on Yom Kippur. 

Inspired by Rav Shlomo Carlebach's sefer Maskil l'Shlomo volume ויקרא שבועות page 72 on Achrei Mos.

https://beta.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=67926&st=&pgnum=72&hilite=

The Tur 619 to say Baruch Sheim loud.

How does this help for the problem of Moshe not having said it, two ways of explaining it from Pesachim 56. (If you want to see everything everyone ever said about this, another (unrelated) Carlebach in חבצלת השרון has a piece on it.)

Similar, Brachos 63 that in the Mikdash no Amein, only BSK. He explained elsewhere that BSK is shevach to the "Sheim Etzem" when it is revealed, i.e., when you say the Sheim Hashem kiksivaso. There are two places this happens. According to the Ritva Taanis 16 this is true all year in the Mikdash. (But many others say that even in the Mikdash, only during duchening and on Yom Kippur, and this vort works better with that approach). Second, according to Rabbeinuu Yona and the Gaon you should have kavana of the Sheim in Krias Shema as it is written. Mimeila, since the reason we say BSK quietly is that in this world, the shevach is incomplete because the Malchus is not evident, as is says in Pesachim 50 about Dayan emes in this world but kulo tov umeitiv in olam haba. Since we have kavana to the Sheim in Krias Shema, there is a desire to say BSK, but we can't, so we say it quietly.

In Sotah 38 it says that you say the Sheim in the mikdash because ושמו את שמי in general in the Mikdash, or בכל מקום rearranged for Birkas Kohanim.

But it's shver, if there's a drasha of זה שמי לעולם meaning לעלם, how can the Mikdash be different? 

He answers that inside the mechitzos of the Mikdash it has dinim of Olam Haba.

So, too, he says, is the nature of Yom Kippur in zman. Pirkei d'Rebbi Eliezer 46,

וְאִלּוּלֵי יוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים לֹא הָיָה הָעוֹלָם עוֹמֵד, שֶׁיּוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים מְכַפֵּר בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה וּלָעוֹלָם הַבָּא, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר ״שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן הִיא״ – שַׁבָּת הָעוֹלָם הַזֶּה, שַׁבָּתוֹן הָעוֹלָם הַבָּא.

Also, Yoma 20, Hasatan = 364, minus YK. Since in Olam haba the Satan is battel, יתמו חטאים מן הארץ, and in Yoel 2 ואת הצפוני ארחיק מעליכם.

Bottom line: The Mikdash is like Olam Haba for hazkaras hasheim, and Yom Kippur is also like Olam Haba.

We do not have a Beis Hamikdash, but we still have kohanim doing the avoda in a holy place. Chazal say that we learn many dinim of how to daven Shmoneh Esrei from והיה מחניך קדוש, which is about the army camp of soldiers who are fighting and sacrificing and suffering to protect Klal Yisrael. Every army camp in Eretz Yisrael is like the Beis Hamikdash, and unfortunately, there have been so many korbanos! 

I have said in the past that the essential Yizkor is davka Yom Kippur, when the meisim are also judged. 

Those holy neshamos, of the sacrifices in Eretz Yisrael, of parents and grandparents and relatives, all are here today, because on Yom Kippur, the line between the living and the dead, between Olam Hazeh and Olam Haba, between ruchniyus and gashmiyus, that line has been erased. In light of all they did for us, in return for the love they showed us, they are entitled to something from here. Today, you can do something for them. You can remember them by making the world a better place, by bring more kedusha into the world, by giving tzedaka in their name, or just by mentioning their name in the world of the living. It's hard to know how interested the neshamos are in what goes on in this world, as far away as they may be, everyone appreciates a package from home. And on Yom Kippur, on this day when all the worlds are connected, they are not far away at all.

NOTE:

After Yomtov, my wife called Rebbitzen Jofen, Harav Carelbach's daughter, and told her we used this vort. She said that she is very familiar with it, and that he once added something to it.

The "hosafa" is raises the whole vort a level.

Rav Carlebach said that the word Tachrichin, תכריך, appears only once in Tanach, in Esther 8:15. 

וּמׇרְדֳּכַ֞י יָצָ֣א ׀ מִלִּפְנֵ֣י הַמֶּ֗לֶךְ בִּלְב֤וּשׁ מַלְכוּת֙ תְּכֵ֣לֶת וָח֔וּר וַעֲטֶ֤רֶת זָהָב֙ גְּדוֹלָ֔ה וְתַכְרִ֥יךְ בּ֖וּץ וְאַרְגָּמָ֑ן וְהָעִ֣יר שׁוּשָׁ֔ן צָהֲלָ֖ה וְשָׂמֵֽחָה׃

There, it is a garment of glory and צהלה ושמחה. This is so different from our use of the word, for the simple cloth used for meisim and בכי תמרורים. But, Rav Carlebach said, this is a mistake. The tachrichin we use for burial are not בגדי מתים.  They are בגדי תחיית המתים. 

We can say the same about the kittel we wear on Yom Kippur. It has many symbolic meanings. But if we think about it as a beged meisim, it is important to remember that, especially on a day when we stand amidst all the neshamos, that it is really a beged of techiyas hameisim.