On lighting a yahrtzeit candle just ahead of the seder if this is the time
About Lighting Yahrzeit Candles Tonight:
Our tradition calls us to light yahrzeit (year-anniversary) candles on the anniversary of a loved one's death. There are no special prayers or blessings which must be recited while lighting a yahrzeit candle. Yahrtzeit candles are also lit on remembrance holidays, such as Yom Kippur and the last day of Passover. In our family, Pesach is a time for remembrance. It is on and near the anniversaries for Dan and Chana and Alan Henkin, and not far from anniversaries for Shirley and Ezra Henkin.
Dan said in the family Haggadah he wrote in 1972, "We express together, each of us, our gratitude that we have been permitted to live, to be maintained and to reach this time, all of us together. And we remember, too, some who are not here." And in the book of Proverbs (chapter 20 verse 27) we read "the soul of a person is the candle of God." Like a human soul, a flame must breathe, change, grow, strive against the darkness and, ultimately, fade away.
Light candles, remember names.
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The Yahrtzeit Candles are not part of the Seder but come before it. Now we light Passover Candles.
Baruch ata adonai eloheinu melech ha'olam asher kid'shanu b'mistvotav v'tsivanu l'hadlik ner shel Yom Tov.
We praise you, G-d, who makes us holy with commandments, and so we light the holiday candles.
May these candles remind us that we must help and not hurt, cause joy and not sorrow, create and not destroy, and help all to be free. And we also praise G-d for the gift of life and this happy time.
Baruch ata adonai eloheinu melech ha-olam shehecheyanu v'kiy'manu v'higi-anu laz'man hazeh.
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Opening Blessing for the Seder:
The Henkin Haggadah (1972) begins with this: "You have given us love, reasons for gladness, holidays and times for rejoicing. As we remember oppression -- whenever and wherever -- honor this evening freedom and all that means."
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