By Zoey Green
no revolutionary movement would have been possible. The human race would have stagnated in eternal poverty, ignorance and slavery.”
This balance between memory and forgetfulness seems to be central to this parsha. Moses warns the Israelites “take utmost care and watch yourselves scrupulously, so that you do not forget the things that you saw with your own eyes and so that they do not fade from your mind as long as you live.” But, forgetting is also shown to be essential as God claims that “the guilt of the parents” will only rest upon the 3rd and 4th generation, which (even if that seems unreasonable) is nothing compared to the 1000 generations that get points for the good acts of the parents.
What role do memory and forgetfulness play in our ability to base our actions in compassion?
When do we fail to find the balance between memory and forgetfulness and fall stubbornly on the side of one and not the other?
As educators, how do we maintain some equilibrium between educating about the oppression of the past and moving forward to create a vision for the future based not only on the current realities but on the ideal society we wish to build?