Av Harachamim or Abh Haraḥamim ( "

Father A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...

fmercy" or "Merciful

") is a Jewish memorial prayer which was written in the late eleventh or early twelfth century, after the

destruction Destruction may refer to: Concepts * Destruktion, a term from the philosophy of Martin Heidegger * Destructive narcissism, a pathological form of narcissism * Self-destructive behaviour, a widely used phrase that ''conceptualises'' certain kind ...

of the

Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

communities around the Rhine River by Christian crusaders during the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic ru ...

. First appearing in prayer books in 1290, it is printed in every

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

siddur A siddur ( he, סִדּוּר ; plural siddurim ) is a Jewish prayer book containing a set order of daily prayers. The word comes from the Hebrew root , meaning 'order.' Other terms for prayer books are ''tefillot'' () among Sephardi Jews, ' ...

in the European traditions of Nusach Sefarad and

Nusach Ashkenaz Nusach Ashkenaz is a style of Jewish liturgy conducted by Ashkenazi Jews. It is primarily a way to order and include prayers, and differs from Nusach Sefard (as used by the Hasidim) and Baladi-rite prayer, and still more from the Sephardic rite p ...

and recited as part of the weekly

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...

services Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a p ...

, or in some communities on the Shabbat before

Shavuot (''Ḥag HaShavuot'' or ''Shavuos'') , nickname = English: "Feast of Weeks" , observedby = Jews and Samaritans , type = Jewish and Samaritan , begins = 6th day of Sivan (or the Sunday following the 6th day of Sivan i ...

and

Tisha B'Av Tisha B'Av ( he, תִּשְׁעָה בְּאָב ''Tīšʿā Bəʾāv''; , ) is an annual fast day in Judaism, on which a number of disasters in Jewish history occurred, primarily the destruction of both Solomon's Temple by the Neo-Babylonian E ...

. The

Yizkor Hazkarat Neshamot (), commonly known by its opening word Yizkor (), is an Ashkenazi Jewish memorial prayer service for the dead. It is important occasion for many Jews, even those who do not attend synagogue regularly. In most Ashkenazi communitie ...

service on

Jewish holiday Jewish holidays, also known as Jewish festivals or ''Yamim Tovim'' ( he, ימים טובים, , Good Days, or singular , in transliterated Hebrew []), are holidays observed in Judaism and by JewsThis article focuses on practices of mainstre ...

s concludes with the ''Av Harachamim'', which prays for the souls of all Jewish martyrs.

Text

English

The Father of mercy who dwells on high in His great mercy will remember with compassion the pious, upright and blameless the holy communities, who laid down their lives for the sanctification of His name. They were loved and pleasant in their lives and in death they were not parted. They were swifter than eagles and stronger than lions to carry out the will of their Maker, and the desire of their steadfast God. May our Lord remember them for good together with the other righteous of the world and may He redress the spilled blood of His servants as it is written in the Torah of Moses the man of God: "O nations, make His people rejoice for He will redress the blood of His servants He will retaliate against His enemies and appease His land and His people". And through Your servants, the prophets it is written: "Though I forgive, their bloodshed I shall not forgive When God dwells in Zion" And in the Holy Writings it says: "Why should the nations say, 'Where is their God?'" Let it be known among the nations in our sight that You avenge the spilled blood of Your servants. And it says: "For He who exacts retribution for spilled blood remembers them He does not forget the cry of the humble". And it says: "He will execute judgement among the corpse-filled nations crushing the rulers of the mighty land; from the brook by the wayside he will drink then he will hold his head high".

Hebrew

Transliteration

Av harachameem shochein m'romeem, b'rachamav ha-atzumeem hu yeefkod b'rachamim. Hachaseedeem v'ha-y'shareem v'ha-t'meemeem, k'heelot hakodesh shemas'ru nafsham al kdushat Hasheim, hane-eh-haveem v'ha-n'eemeem b'chayeihem, uvmotam lo neefradu. Meen'shareem kalu umeiarayot gaveiru laasot r'tzon konam v'cheifetz tzuram. Yeezk'reim Eloheinu l'tova eem sh'ar tzadeekei olam v'yeenkom l'eineinu neekmat dam avadav hashafuch kakatuv b'torat moshe eesh haEloheem: harneenu goyeem amo kee dam avadav yeekom v'nakam yasheev l'tzarav v'cheeper admato amo. V'al y'dei avadecha haN'vee-eem katuv leimor: V'neekeitee damam lo neekeitee vAdonoy Shochein b'tzeeyon. Uvcheetvei hakodesh ne-eh-mar: lama yom'ru hagoyeem ayei ehloheihem yeevada bagoyeem l'eineinu neekmat dam avadecha hashafuch. V'omeir: kee doreish dameem otam zachar lo shachach tza-ah-kat anaveem. V'omeir: yadeen bagoyeem malei g'veeyot machatz rosh al eretz raba. Meenachal baderech yeeshte al kein yareem rosh.

Melodies

References

External links

Yizkor article
at Jewish Virtual Library
{{Jewish prayers Bereavement in Judaism Jewish prayer and ritual texts Shacharit for Shabbat and Yom Tov First Crusade Medieval anti-Jewish pogroms Hebrew words and phrases in Jewish prayers and blessings