I commend Israel Defense Forces Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz for his decision to adapt the beautiful and touching language for the Yizkor prayer at the IDF memorial services, settling on, "May the people of Israel [rather than 'May God'] remember their sons and daughters." His choice follows deliberations by a special team, appointed by Gantz himself, which examined the issue and served its recommendations on, as Gantz called it, "the right, appropriate language for the Yizkor prayer." As the father of the late Maj. Yehoraz Kasher, as a citizen of the Jewish people's nation-state, as someone who respects Jewish tradition and as someone who wants to see Hebrew culture flourish as a whole, I support this decision. The rationale for choosing to say "May the people of Israel remember," rather than "May God remember," lies in the significant difference between these two versions. The latter, God-centric version expresses a wish and lets God shape the following reality. But the former expresses a request than can only be fulfilled by the people who recite it. It takes personal responsibility for memorializing our fallen soldiers. The distinction between deferring responsibility to the heavens versus shouldering a responsibility yourself is the underlying meaning of the state of Israel. This is a country where the Jewish people are self-sufficient in their own sovereign state and where we hold responsibility for all aspects of our lives, including how we remember and honor those who have fallen so that we could be saved. I can understand why IDF Chief Rabbi Brig. Gen. Rafi Peretz disagreed with the omission of the word "God" and why he was the sole dissenter on Gantz's panel. Therefore, when I was called by the team to offer my views, my goal was to come to an agreement that accommodates everyone's sensitivities. I found inspiration in language from the Hodaya prayer of thanks, authored by former chief rabbis Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog and Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel at the end of the Second World War. Their rendering of the "El Maleh Rahamim" prayer (recited upon a person's death) goes as follows: "May you [God] remember in this day of victory ... the souls of the soldiers of [the people of] Israel." After reading these words, I knew that coming up with similar language, appropriate for our era, would not be so difficult. IDF soldiers fight together, train together and sometimes die together. Memorial services for IDF soldiers must accommodate everyone. Each and every one of us should be able to identify with a piece of the Yizkor prayer service, and this decision made by the IDF chief of general staff lets all soldiers honor, respect and memorialize their comrades without any qualms or discomfort.