MEMORY FLAME

- Joy Krauthammer

Portable Pocket Yahrzeit & Yiskor Memory Flame is a card I created for myself and others in mourning.

It was Shavuot Yiskor 2007 at a retreat out of town at Isabella Freedman Center with Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and I didn't have a candle, so I imagined a flame. Reb Dovid Zeller, z'l, had died at that time. I also needed a candle for my husband, z'l.

The Yiskor teaching was given to us on Shavuot by Reb Zalman. "In memory of loved ones", in each direction, to and from your loved one, z'l, giving and receiving, "feel Forgiveness, Gratitude, Compassion and Love." Hold your beloved's hand in your hand.

I returned home and asked Reb Yosef, zt'l, what would be the best translation for the Psalm 20:27 that I used, and he gave me the English words on the side opposite the flame I painted--following my meditation on the Holy Temple.

In the center of the Ohr, flame painting that I made following a meditation on the Holy Temple, is a Mogen Dovid shaped lotus, a water lily flower. I thought Reb Dovid would appreciate this lily from his India days. The lily / sosannim is found in Old Testament in Psalms and sometimes translated by musicologists as "testimony."  Do you see inside the other blue Mogen Dovid, is a heart?

Because he really liked the finished Yahrzeit & Yiskor MEMORY FLAME, I sent several cards to Reb Yosef in Jerusalem, for him to share in compassion.

Now I have this card knowing that Reb Yosef is part of the creation and that feels good. 

In locations where candles may not be lit for safety reasons, and in ritual, I and others have used the little Yahrzeit and Yiskor Memory Flame card with my Ohr, flame painting. 

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