Seeing my daughter ride her bike reminded me of the first time I rode my bike. It is one of the only vivid memories that I have from when I was 5.
One of the themes of Rosh Hashana is memories. Yom Hazikaron. Day of memories.
Why do certain events (good or bad) remain etched in our memory forever while others fade into oblivion? Why is it that I vividly remember learning to ride a bike but I remember almost nothing else from when I was 5. Why is it that we remember exactly where we were at at 8:44 am on Sept 11, 2001 but we probably remember nothing from september 10th of that year?
Is memory selective and if it is selective, can we actively select which events to remember and which events to forget?
We blow the shofar on Rosh Hashana to remind G-d of the Akeidah (Sacrifice of Isaac). What does it mean to “remind” G-d? Does that not imply that G-d forgot.
In order to answer these question, I would like to turn to a very interesting theory of one of the greatest scholars of Jewish Memory, Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi.
Yerushalmi was born in 1932 in the Bronx into a religious familiy. He went to yeshiva as a child, earned his Semikha and served in the Pulpit for a few years before realizing that the life of a rabbi was not for him. He became a Jewish Historian and had a very distinguished career first at Harvard and then at Columbia.
In 1982 he wrote a book called Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory. In the book, Yerushalmi contrasts Jewish History and Jewish Memory.
While it is true that Judaism is obsessed with Memory and our historical past, we are not historians. Before the 19th century, you can count on one hand the number of self proclaimed Jewish Historians.
What is the difference between Jewish history and Jewish Memory?
- Jewish history is concerned with facts and dates. Jewish Memory is concerned with emotions and meaning.
- Jewish history is studied through history text books while Jewish memory is transmitted through Tefilah and Mitzvoth.
- Jewish History is taught by scholars and teachers in school, Jewish memory is passed down from parent to child in the home.
- The Jewish Historian cannot rest until he unearths all the facts in an unbiased way. Jewish memory is selective. It chooses a few key events and makes them part of the jewish religious memory and religious experience.
If you go to a lecture about Tisha B’av. You learn the dates, the Roman Generals, the battles - this is Jewish History. You come to shul on Tisha B’av night and sit on the floor and read Eichah in the dark - this is Jewish Memory.
On Rosh Hashana, how does G-d act? Is G-d the Historian with a “capital H” digging up every detail and fact? Does G-d Weigh every sin and every good deed and objectively deliver a verdict. Or is G-d, like the Jewish people engaged, in Jewish memory-making, selecting to remember certain events and forgetting others?
Lets look at the Machzor. The Zichronot (verses of Rememberance) section opens by describing a G-d who remembers everything. Who knows our deepest secrets and motives. This is a scary G-d to judge us. We cannot get away with anything!
But then a shift happens. The closing part of the Zichronot section quotes from Jeremiah.
Hashem says זכרתי לך חסד נעוריך אהבת...- “I remember the Love we had for each other. How you followed me into the desert.”
We want Hashem to remember the “honeymoon” when we followed Him into the desert.
But someone might say, “hold on, it wasnt such a great honeymoon. We fought every day of the Honeymoon. We sinned the golden Calf. We complained at every opportunity.
Hashem says, “dont let the facts and details get in the way of my beautiful memory.”
After we entered the promise land, we sinned and sinned and sinned some more. Yet Hashem “forgets” all of that. He only remembers the honeymoon (the good parts of it). This is selective memory. It works out for us.
On Rosh Hashana, just as we ask Hashem to remember the covenant, we must remember as well.
If you think about it, almost every mitzvah is in some way a Zecher, creating a Jewish memory. In two weeks, we will leave our homes and eat and live in flimsy huts which we call sukkot. Why do we do this? To remember. To remember the shelter G-d provided for us in the desert. We dont only study about it, learn all the details, where did they travel, how did they travel. Do we have archeological evidence? Those are questions for the Historian. When we go in the sukkah we are creating and preserving a Collective Jewish memory of Hashem taking care of us in the desert.
Tzitzith reminds us of the Mitzvoth. The Mezuzah reminds us to Love Hashem. We do birkhat Hamazon in order not to forget Hashem.
Memory, Memory Memory. Memory is mentioned in the Bible 169 times.
More than the people of the Book, we are really the People of Memories. In fact, before the second century it was forbidden to write down the Oral Law. The only book that we had was the Torah. Everything else had to be memorized. We were the People of memories.
So on Rosh hashana, as we blow the shofar and ask G-d to remember, we need ask ourselves, How are we doing? Are we remembering? Are we doing a Good Job being a link in this long chain which goes back to the beginning of our people. Are we passing on the memories. Making them exciting. Making them meaningful and relevant through daily mitzvot.
Our community spends a lot of money on what I would call “Jewish Knowledge.” You do the math. 15 - 25K a year on tuition X 12 = hundreds of thousands of dollars and we havent even started college tuition yet! Think about all the money invested in Hebrew Schools and Adult Education programs. We spend so much money on Jewish Knowledge.
But if when our kids come home from school, we are not successful at transforming their Jewish Knowledge into Jewish memory, all the money is wasted.
Another question which is related is how will we be remembered. By our friends, by our children and grandchildren.
I opened by talking about my memory learning to ride a bike. It is one of my only early memories. But i have others. One of my other earliest memories is watching my father daven. I remember him getting up really early to go to the Daf Yomi class. I remember my Mother being the ultimate Ba’alas Chesed always inviting new comers into our home. I remember her being called at all hours to do a Tahara. My earliest memories of my family are of Chesed and Torah!
How will our kids remember us? What kinds of memories are we creating?
Let me conclude with a story.
A few weeks after the first Lebanon War, a well known Atheist made an appointment to see a great rabbi. This Atheist, a was Professor of English Literature in israel who was very anti-religious. He had written op-eds saying that the worst thing you can do to a Jewish child is give him a Religious education. It will poison his mind.
So the rabbi was a bit surprised that the Professor wanted to see him but he agreed. When the Professor showed up, he said to the Rabbi, “I want to dedicate my life to Jewish religious education.” The Rabbi says, “are you serious or are you making fun of me.” The professor says, “I am very serious, let me tell you what happened to me.”
I was fighting deep in the mountains of Lebanon and I was hit by a bullet. I was bleeding and I knew I would die within two hours if nobody came to save me. So what does one think when you have two hours left to live. I am a professor of Shakespeare. I know all of the plays by heart, so i began to recite Hamlet. Hamlet is beautiful. Some of the loftiest literature ever written, but it was not doing it for me.
I am a committed Zionist. I know Herzl’s Judenstat by heart. I started reviewing it in my mind. It didnt work.
Suddenly, tears started rolling down my cheeks as I remembered being 5 years old and walking with my grandfather hand in hand to shul on Yom Kippur Night. I remembered the joy of sitting on my father’s shoulders for hours as we danced on simchat torah. I remembered my mother lovingly putting me to sleep and saying the shema with me and I remember my mother lighting the shabbos candles which brought such a glow and warmth to our house. And these memories gave me comfort in my final hours and I decided to just review these memories in my mind for the last few hours of my life.
But then I had a startling Horrific realization. What if my son would be in the same situation. What if he was shot and had two hours left to live? What memories would he have? He wouldn't be able to think about going with his zaide to Yom Kippur. He wouldn't be able to remember when he danced on his father’s shoulders on simchat torah and he wouldn't be able to remember his mother tucking him in with the shema and lighting the shabbos candles because she would not. He would not have any of these memories, because I did not give him them. I did not create them for him.
And then I realized that these memories are not only important for the last two hours of one’s life but for for every moment of one’s life. And at that moment I decided that if I survived, I would dedicate my life to religious education so that I can make sure that every Jewish boy and every jewish girl has those memories. That was my last thought. I woke up about a week later in a hospital in Israel and after many surgeries, I survived and here I am. Please help me dedicate my life to religious education.
The call of the shofar forces us to ask ourselves, what kind of memories are we creating. How strong are the memories and have we done everything to transmit them.
Today we ask Hashem to remember the covenant and we commit to remember our part of the covenant. We commit to being one link and the long and beautiful chain of the Jewish People to do our part in passing on the collective Jewish Memory. And in that merit, May Hashem remember us only for the Good and grant us a year in which our deepest prayers are answered. A year of health, a year of blessing and a year of beautiful memories.
Shanah Tova.
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