What Brings Them to Shul

It has frequently occurred to me that the few things that bring the largest numbers of otherwise unaffiliated Ashkenazi Jews to the synagogue - mourner's Kaddish, Yizkor, and Kol Nidrei - are all medieval inventions. Two have to do with death, and all three have to do with guilt. This latter may be the prime motivator. But why not anything of a more ancient origin?

Here's an excerpt from Samuel C. Heilman's "When a Jew Dies" that touches on this aspect in the second-to-last paragraph. Note also how he says, without quite saying so, that the Yizkor is a direct imitation of the Catholic "Memento" service.
( Read more... )

From Chabad.org blog

http://www.chabad.org/news/article_cdo/AID/774768/ShowFeedback/true

Unarmed Jews baffle me
This is not news, this is old history. More dead unarmed Jews.
When I got married, everyone in the wedding party, including the Rabbi, had a concealed weapon.
Please learn from these and millions of our dead kin, arm yourselves!!!!
Posted By LOTAR, FTL, fl