Remembering and Forgetting
In this week’s parasha, Ki Teitzei, Moses offers the Israelites a number of instructions, including the instruction to blot out the memory of our enemy Amalek. In the very next sentence, Moses tells the people to never forget Amalek. How do we at once forget and remember Amalek?
Yehuda Amichai, one of the most famous Israeli poets sheds some light on the middle ground between remembering and forgetting.
The world is filled with remembering and forgetting As it is with sea and dry land. Sometimes memory Is the dry land that is firm and founded And sometimes memory is the sea that covers everything Like in the flood. And it is forgetting that is the dry land like Arrarat.
Amichai reminds us that there is a place for remembering and a place for forgetting.
What do you want to remember from this past week? What do you want to forget?
– Rabbi Avi Fine