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LIVING THE MITZVAH
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Help your family "to remember."
Create a family history album. Add a special element by
interviewing your parents and grandparents and other
relatives about their Jewish memories, and include some of
their best stories in your project.
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Ever since we became a people, we have been commanded to
remember our history. In fact, the Torah uses the term
"remember " over 200 times! The Israelites are
told to remember everything important--both the good (such
as the Exodus from Egypt) and the bad (such as the
Amalekites, Israel's worst enemy in the time of Joshua).
Repeatedly, the people are urged to remember the ways in
which God has sustained them and the responsibilities God
has placed before them.
Perhaps the most significant way that Judaism fulfills the
responsibility to remember its history is by making the
reading of the Torah the centerpiece of every
Shabbat-morning worship. In the middle of our prayer, we
pause for a history lesson. Week after week, year after
year, we retell the ancient stories of our people. The same
principle applies at the Pesah seder, when in response to
the Four Questions, we interrupt our prayers to retell the
story of our liberation.
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