Shalom! This is a do it yourself unveiling or dedication service for a tomb stone. Usually we begin with a Psalm or often time Psalm 15 who shall abide by the law, the Lord’s Holy Mountain, or Psalm 23, the Lord is my Shepherd. For a Jewish woman we sometimes do Proverbs 31, A Woman of Valor or some other appropriate biblical readings like Ecclesiastes Chapter 3, there is a time for this and a time for that, then a few words about the disease manifold blown funeral again, but words about the diseased that are comforting. I usually give a Devar Torah, there is lots different ideas to use, here is one, since obviously you are dealing with stone draw upon the biblical uses of stone and there were several.
If there was a stone found that was set in the land of the Bible it meant one of several things. First they were often used to cover a well and you can draw the parallel there that mean a water source covered by stone that gave life to people who drink from it and this stone covering a source that was life for the family.
A second use of the stone is like when Jacob used the stone for a pillow, it was a holy place. He welcomes, said God is in this place and I did not know it. When our ancestors before, there was a portable tabernacle created a holy place they would create a set of stones and we consider a grave today a place of holiness. In addition God ordered the people to take plaster and cover stones and write the words of the Torah or maybe Deuteronomy on the stones may enter the land memorial stones, just like this is a memorial stone. And then of course in the modern times we have to set up stones, that is the most important stones of the Jewish people, we have the Western law and Ralph Cook who was a chief rabbi of Palestine before Israel became a state, once said there are some stones that have hearts like human beings and some human beings that have heart like stones. There is a modern Israeli song [Singing].
So you could say that as an antray to the stone dedication and then in our Urbanic manuals we have a little prayer about the actual dedication, you could write one yourself about why you are dedicating it or how you are dedicating it, I will just read you the prayer views in our manual in the name of the family of so and so and in the presence of his family and friends we consecrate this monument to his memory or her memory as a token of our love and respect and then we say the words that are often found in initials in the Jewish tomb stone [Jewish Prayer] may his soul be bound up in the bond of life.
Almighty God, eternal creator, we are thankful, for the life of so and so for the years that he or she was granted in for the privilege of having shared those years. May the memory of his devotion do his family and friends his love for them, his goodness, gentleness, and thoughtfulness, warmth and friendship, integrity, and dedication, his patience and courage under affliction, his loyalty to the traditions of our people, use which every one supply continue to inspire us that we may live a better life.
Oh Lord, help all those who mourn him to honor his memory through their daily lives. Comfort them and grant them strength for you, our rock and redeemer, we will say, Amen.
And then we conclude with the mourners Scottish and I have another video which tells you how to do the mourner’s Scottish, also included is the El Molei Rokhamim memorial prayer and I have another video which says how to do the El Molei Rokhamim memorial prayer. Of course, the ritual of the dedication is pulling back the cheesecloth or the covering on the grave.
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