When a person dies, he or she is mourned by someone they loved in life, and every time that mourner recites the
yizkor prayer, the mourner is holding on to the end of a rope. This rope stretches all the way to heaven, where the comforting presence of God grips the other end tightly.

Sometimes, our loss overwhelms us, and we drop our end of the rope. Sometimes, in our sorrow or panic, we grab onto it more tightly.But God never lets go of the end of the
rope in heaven.

I remember, during Yizkor, closing my eyes and concentrating, and feeling the fibers of that rope scratching against the palm of my hand.
In sorrow, we remember our loved ones who are no longer here to hold our hands as we walk this earth. They have returned to the dust from which we were all created,
and to where we all return.

Yizkor is a time to reach for the rope: It is our connection to them, and to God, whose unbounded compassion for us can help us heal the pain as we grieve, and as we remember