changing the moment of silence

(This post was cross posted at DB)

We are less than a mere week away from Holocaust Day, or Yom HaShoah. It falls out this year on May 1, the 26th of Nissan.

The adopted custom in Israel for commemorating the Holocaust is a moment of silence. Everybody stands still when the siren blares, from people working in offices to people driving down the highway. Everything comes to a standstill for that minute. Just as the siren wails and cries out to us to pause from our daily routine and think back to the atrocities people are capable of, and to the great suffering and tragedies we have experienced, the silence and the sight of all of Israel stopping to stand still during that moment also is a shock to the system called routine and beckons us to consider how we are all one - we all rejoice together and we all suffer together.

While the concept of "A Moment of Silence" is not a Jewish one, and perhaps that moment could be better used by forming some sort of Jewish method of commemorating the Holocaust (be it in prayer as is the common recommendation, or be it some other Jewish sourced method), that is the method currently in place. Until that will be changed, in the great debate (in the religious community) of whether people should stand still or not stand still, I am in favor of standing still.

Al Tifrosh Min Ha'Tzibbur. Do not separate yourself from the community. When all of Israel stands still, it appears to be a desecration to the memory of the Holocaust, and a desecration to the religious community, and subsequently a desecration of Hashem's name, when religious people are seen protesting the moment of silence by refusing to stand still.

Is your time so valuable and accounted for that that one minute of wasted time is your only bittul torah of the day? I know I waste plenty of minutes over the course of the day, so this one minute is not my biggest problem of bittul torah. In addition, the amount of time wasted protesting the moment of silence causes bittul torah to a far greater degree in total minutes wasted, than if the protester would just choose to "waste" that one moment standing in silence.

And, of course, who says that minute has to be wasted? One can recite a chapter of tehillim to himself in that moment. One can review a mishna in memory of the dead in that moment. One can find a way personally to utilize that moment in a more Jewish method of commemoration, while still standing still and avoiding the creation of a Chillul Hashem.

That leads me to this: The Council Rabbi of Rosh Ha'ayin, Rabbi Hanania Tsfar, has called for a change in the system of memorializing the Holocaust for the implementation of a more Jewish method, including the recital of tehillim along with the lighting of candles. And no more wreaths to be placed upon the graves and memorials.

Tsfar is coming under criticism for his lack of sensitivity to the secular public, and "religious coercion".

But I agree with Tzfar. We do not need to use non-Jewish methods of commemoration. We can and should commemorate the Holocaust using Jewish methods. This is a Jewish country and should use Jewish methods and symbols in its ceremonies and events.

That being said, I am aware that, while Tsfar has raised the discussion in the public forum, nothing is going to be changed in the near future. Maybe in the long term he will successfully find a way to implement change, but for now we will continue with the moment of silence.

I see no reason to criticize Tsfar for his raising of the topic. I see no reason to criticize Tsfar for his suggestion and recommendation. Nowhere in the article did I see him call for people to not stand in silence while the rest of the country is. It seems to me that he is calling for a change in the system, which is something that is worthy of being discussed. Is it wrong, in a democracy, to question whether a system in place is really the best system and maybe a better one could be used?

I support considering a change in the system. But in the meantime, as long as the system is the moment of silence, I will be standing still when the siren wails.