We must always remember our story

Joseph requested from the Israelites that although I die in exile, God will bring you back to the Land and when He does so, “carry my bones” with you. When Moses smashed the tablets, the Israelites carried the new tablets along with the fragments of the old in the ark.

It has been this way throughout Jewish history. We carry with us all the fragments of our people’s past; the broken lives, the anguished deaths. We refuse to let their deaths be in vain. They live on within us as we continue our life journey to the future.

It is also with the victims of the Shoah — lost lives, broken communities, synagogues desecrated and set on fire, sacred scrolls burned and turned to ash, an entire generation murdered including 1.5 million children. What our enemies killed we keep alive in the only way we can, in our minds, our memories and our memorial prayers.

There are cultures that forget the past and there are cultures that are captive by the past. We do neither. We carry the past with us as we will carry the memory of the Shoah with us for as long as the Jewish people exist, as Moses carried the bones of Joseph and as the Levites carried the fragments of the shattered tablets of stone.

Those fragments of memory help make us who we are. Judaism is a religion of memory. The word “zokor” appears 169 times in the Hebrew Bible. “Remember that you were strangers in Egypt;” “Remember the days of old;” Remember the seventh day to keep it holy.” Memory, for Jews, is a religious obligation.

In connection with the Holocaust, people ask, is it really right to remember? Should there be a moratorium on grief ? Are not most of the ethnic conflicts in the world fueled by memories of perceived injustices long ago? Would not the world be more peaceful if once in a while we forgot?

Three times in the Book of Genesis, God spoke on remembering. “God remembered Noah” and brought him out of the ark onto dry land. “God remembered Abraham” and saved his nephew Lot from destruction. “God remembered Rachel” and gave her child. When God remembers, He does so for the future and for life.

Memory is different from history. History is someone else’s story. It’s about events that occurred long ago to someone else. Memory is our story. It’s about where we come from and what we are part of. History answers the question, “What happened?” Memory answers the question, “Who am I?” It is about identity and connection between generations.

We don’t remember for the sake of revenge. “Do not hate the Egyptians,” said Moses, “for you were a stranger in their land.” To be free, you have to let go of hate. Remember the past, said Moses, but do not be held captive by it. Turn it into a blessing, not a curse; a source of hope, not humiliation.

Many Holocaust survivors spend their time sharing their memories with young people, not for the sake of revenge, but to teach tolerance and the value of life. They are mindful of the lessons of Genesis to remember for the future and for life. A society without memory is like a journey without a map. It’s all too easy to get lost.

So we say to the souls of those lost in Europe’s darkness: We will never forget you, we will never cease to mourn you, until all mankind can walk the world without fear, and to the God of life who told us: “Choose life” against those who choose death.