Grief Is Praise: A High Holy Day Cemetery Service

In this special High Holy Day episode of Voices of Emanu El, Rabbi Oren Hayon leads a Kever Avot service from the quiet grounds of Congregation Emanu El’s cemetery, Emanu El Memorial Park, in the “sacred valley of time” between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. Drawing on Geraldine Brooks’ memoir Memorial Days, the Hebrew poetry of Psalm 118, and the teaching that “grief is praise,” Rabbi Hayon reflects on love, loss, and the honest, unvarnished grief that Jewish tradition embraces as part of life’s sacred rhythm. Listeners are invited into a tender space to remember parents, spouses, children, teachers, and friends, to honor the stories that live on in us, and to hear the blessing of our tradition: Zichronam Livracha—may their memories always be for a benediction.