#42 knew exactly what you were talking about and to make light of taking a moment to remember kedoshim that fell in defense of E”Y is mind boggling even for YWN!!!!
To tell you the truth, I didn’t realize that d a was referring to a specific moment of silence, I thought he was just asking in general so I made a joke out of it. There is definitely a concept of stopping to think about certain things (one of the yetzer hara’s biggest weapons is making us too busy to stop and think) but I don’t know whether or not a public moment of silence has any basis in Judaism which is probably what d a was asking.
in the case of the yom haatmaut, and yom hazikaron, it a zecher in this society. If you are unfamiliar with the device of zecher, take a look at your seder plate. The two tavshilin are evocative of the korbanot. It can be an egg and a bone, pickeled beets and egg salad, or the gemaras recipe, beets and rice. An arbitrary device or action to link to a larger concept. Chapst?