Yahrzeit

Yahrzeit (Yiddish, from German, yahr, year, plus zeit, time) in Judaism is the yearly observance^{def. 5} of the death of a close family member. There are a number of common customs for Jews observing a yahrzeit. These include remembering the relative, lighting memorial candles, saying special prayers, giving money to charity, and visiting the grave of the relative.

The date of the yahrzeit is fixed by the Hebrew calendar.

Yahrzeit Media

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  Jewish funeral in Vilnius (1824), National Museum in Warsaw

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  Yiskor for Herzl, by Boris Schatz.

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  De treurdagen ("The mourning days") by Jan Voerman, ca 1884

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  Headstones in the Hebrew Lot, Rose Hill Cemetery, Macon, Bibb County, GA, c.1877.

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  A yahrtzeit candle lit in memory of a loved one on the anniversary of the death

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  Early 20th-century Yahrzeit table, in the collection of the Jewish Museum of Switzerland.

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  Yahrtzeitlicht from Lengnau in Aargau (Switzerland), 1830.

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  The grave of rabbi-singer Shlomo Carlebach in Jerusalem is piled with stones left by visitors.

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  Remembrance plaque in Tiel.

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  Tombstone of victim of Triangle Shirtwaist Fire at the Hebrew Free Burial Association's Mount Richmond Cemetery.

Other websites

• Lamm, Rabbi Maurice. The Jewish Way in Death and Mourning. Reproduced with permission at chabad.org. Retrieved 9 May 2016. (may not be Simple English)

Yahrzeit full article Archived 2017-07-31 at the Wayback Machine