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02.24.2013 (4073 days ago)

Remembering

Remembering
4073 days ago 7 comments Categories: Lifestyle Tags:

This is Purim, and it is a time for remembering and forgetting.  It is sometimes confusing.  For example we are told in the Torah that when God grants us safety from all our enemies "in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven."  Then it says in the next sentence, "Do not forget!"


Hold on.  Are we to blot out the memory, that is forget, or not forget as we are then commanded?  This reminds me of the Abbott and Costello skit where they are in a car and Costello is pulling out of a parking spot and Abbott tells him to back up, and then says, "OK, go ahead," and Costello is hopefully confused and just keeps slamming on the brakes


The Rabbi made an interesting point though.  He asked how many people would like to have a better memory, and most people raised their hands.  Then he told us about Funes El Memorioso, a short story by the Argentine write Jorge Luis Borges.  The gist of the story is that 19 year old Funes had fallen from his horse and from that day forward he remembered everything, and could not blot a thing from his memory, even the shape of the clouds every day.  His perfect memory haunted him and turned out to be a curse.


Maybe sometimes it is better to forget things.  Like insults, or fights with your husband or wife, or embarassing moments.  Perhaps an imperfect memory is not so bad.  I guess the moral is, remember to forget.

 


 
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