Yom HaShoah 5781 (Holocaust Remembrance Day 2021)

Tree of Life Messianic Congregation

The full name of the day commemorating the victims of the Holocaust is “Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevurah“– literally the “Day of (Remembrance of) the Holocaust and the Heroism.” It is marked on the 27th day in the month of Nisan.

Today, we honor the memories of those that went before us. We lament and light a candle that will burn for 24 hours in memory of those lost. The concept of a special yahrzeit candle was originally developed in the late 1970s by survivors of the Shoah to remember victims of the Shoah with an observance in their homes.

“Remember,” we are told. “Never forget”—a slogan based on God’s prescription in Deuteronomy 25:17–19: Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, How he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.