In the Media

If there’s one word that embodies Jewish identity and consciousness, it’s “zachor” or “remember”. It’s repeated in one way or another some 169 times in the Tanach or Jewish Bible. It’s an imperative for every Jew. And so we remember our dead on the anniversary of their passing and at the Yizkor service on our festivals. In our contemporary calendar we have a Remembrance Day for the Holocaust and a Day of Memory for the fallen soldiers of the IDF.

Shabbat Zachor is the name of the Sabbath preceding Purim and it sets the scene for both this festival and that of Pesach a month later.

We recall the inspiring courage of the women of the Exodus generation from the midwives to Miriam.

Both Purim and Pesach call on us to remember how virulent and enduring antisemitism is, how our enemies are unrelenting and ingenious in their attempts to eradicate us. Pharaoh and Haman like Amalek and Hitler, Hamas and Hezbollah are the original genociders. Rabbi JB Soloveitchik suggests that the Egyptian and Persian exiles were unique in that in both instances the entire Jewish people were subjugated by a threatening tyrant whose nefarious plans “could have spelled the end of Jewish history”. Hitler, of course, was infatuated by the same frightening fantasy.

Our tradition calls on us to keep both festivals fresh in our lives. They are as much about history as they are about memory; in TS Eliot’s elegant phrase we focus not only on the painful pastness of the past but also on the presence of that past. The seder experience is a way of reliving the Exodus experience so “in every generation see yourself as one freed from Egypt”. Similarly, the megillah tells us that “these days should be remembered… for every generation”.

And the latter-day Persia AKA Iran has of course been at the forefront of global antisemitism and threats of global genocide of the Jews. How odd a twist of fate or the wondrous hidden hand of God that in this past Purim week we have possibly witnessed the unravelling of this evil empire.

Remembrance, says Jewish thought, is the secret of our redemption.

We remember not only the danger and devastation but the strength and the conviction. We remember with pride the power of Jewish leadership – Moses and Aaron, Mordechai and Esther.

We recall the inspiring courage of the women of the Exodus generation from the midwives to Miriam, and we recall the bold and perspicacious Esther – models for modern Jewish female leaders.

We pay attention to the rousing words of Moses to Pharaoh: Let my people go! And we are moved by the challenging words of Mordechai to Esther because they apply to us all: “And who knows if perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

We don’t ask to be in situations of distress or danger, but if called upon to respond we should be ready. We the Jewish people have been tested to our limits over the last few years. We the Australian Jewish community have been sorely shaken by the massacre at Bondi. We live in a time which demands of us hope, faith, conviction and action. Let’s draw our inspiration from how the Jewish people in Egypt and Persia responded to the dreadful and dangerous challenges of their times.

Remembrance can and should lead to heightened awareness of our role in the world collectively and individually. It can and should lead to action and activism, a deepening of our Jewish lives and practices.

So, at Pesach time, we tell the old inspirational story, take on practices of freedom and liberation, and at Purim time we listen to the words of that ancient story with a view to countering hatred with hopefulness.

To translate those words into a modern context: We are called on not to underestimate the dangerous art of being Jewish but also not to forget to celebrate the joy of being Jewish.

Reach out to your friends and neighbours Jewish and non-Jewish with a gift of food or a meal to share, lift a glass (or four!) of wine over a good meal and say a l’chaim to a strong and bold Israel, to a resilient and resourceful Jewish community, to a world in which we still have many allies and friends. Counter the hatred not with more hatred but with a love informed by our long history of being messengers of God.