Kever Avot
Sunday, September 10, 10am, Lou Pollock Cemetery
The custom of visiting the graves of deceased relatives and close friends at the beginning of the year is one of long standing in Judaism. It is often traced back to Jacob burying Rachel on the way to Ephrath near Bethlehem so that she could later pray for her children, the people of Israel as they passed by her grave to the Babylonian Exile (Jeremiah 31:15) and to Caleb who the Talmud relates took time during his scouting out the of Israel to visit he graves of our Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron. The theme of the prayers is peaceful eternal rest for the departed, and an invocation for God’s aid to the living on the basis of pious deeds of the dead performed in their lifetime.