HOW COME A JEW? - II
According to Moses, the real test of a nation is, not if it can survive a crisis, but if it can survive the lack of one. Can it remain strong in times of abundance and power? History teaches us that the nations that seemed impregnable in their times, all eventually declined and lapsed into obscurity. All for the reasons which were foreseen by Moses. Moses did more than warn the people. He also showed how the danger could be averted. He spoke of the prime significance of memory for the moral health of a society. The word “Zakhor” ( remember ) is reiterated by Moses many times throughout the book of Deuteronomy. " Remember " is a "command delivered 197 times in the Bible. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote: “It is possible to see Judaism itself as a technology of memory, a set of practices designed to make the past present.” Memory is essential to who we are as a people. It binds us to others. It helps us to know to whom we belong. And in Judaism, memory is not p...