My recent posts…

Parshat Lech-Lecha 5785

We make assumptions about others based on what we see: what they wear, what they drive, their work, past-times… And we project upon the other who passes our superficial entrance exam what we want them to be — i.e., more like us!

Yom Kippur Singing

My recent posts...Over the decades, I have composed melodies for some of the texts we use in our prayer services. (I've written English interpretations of the texts for a few of them.) Some of them are posted here so we can sing them together at Shirat Hayam and, even...

Remember! Forget!

Feb 19, 2021

The Israelites, walking to their Promised Land, are attacked by Amalek, who target the weak and elderly, the stragglers.

Is Amalek demoralizing the Israelites by picking off the vulnerable? Perhaps shaming them for not protecting those most at risk?

After defeating Amalek, the Israelites are told to blot out the memory of that tribe — implying that we dare not again betray the unprotected.

The charge to erase the memory of Amalek closes with the injunction “lo tishkach / do not forget!”

As if we could!

Would that we could forget this past year, blotting out our feelings of vulnerability, but “lo tishkach / we cannot forget / we may not forget / we will not forget.”

Let us remember…and learn compassion and determination.

Shabbat shalom! שבת שלום