My Mom’s 2nd Yahrzeit
My mom passed away 2 years ago this past Shabbat, so yesterday we drove over to the cemetery to read some Psalms for her.
When we arrived my brother passed out some small rocks he’d found, and I mentioned an idea I once heard from Rabbanit Yemima, that the Hebrew word for stone is “Even” spelled Aleph, Vet, Nun, standing for:
Aleph=Em/Av (Mother/Father)
Vet=Bat/Ben (Daughter/Son)
Nun=Nechdah/Neched (Granddaughter/Grandson)
Rabbanit Yemima explained that it’s not a Jewish custom to place flowers on a graves. Because flowers wilt and waste away. Stones, on the other hand, remain forever. Representing that when somebody dies, we continue building. Rock by rock, mitzvah by mitzvah, grandchild by grandchild. In their honor and for their merit.
This idea felt especially fitting as my brother and sister and I and my mother’s 4 American grandchildren placed stones on her grave.
As if to say, we are your Even, we exist thanks to you, and we are who we are, at least to a certain extent, thanks to you. And we promise to follow your example, and continue to do what we can to make the world a better place. To build stone by stone, mitzvah by mitzvah, grandchild by grandchild.
Rest in peace and thank you, Mom.
That was really beautiful
This was very beautiful and so meaningful especially to me.
My mother’s second yarzeit is also coming up on the 20th of teves.
I still have not visited her grave because she was buried in Eretz Yisroel and I live in NYC :*(
May our mothers neshamas have an aliya
That is so beautiful. Thanks for sharing. May your beloved mother have an ilui neshama.