Ekev ~ Six that ought to be Seven

In our parsha we have the last one of the six remembrances that Jews should remember every day. Can you spot it?

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Devarim is a book of memory. It is an amazing book in a way that makes us recreate memories of which we weren't aware. It is Devarim that in a stroke of genius has Moshe saying: God made this covenant with all of us, even those who will be born after us. We read that a couple of weeks ago.

Why does Moshe need to say that? Well, not one of those present were slaves in Egypt. Few probably remember being at Sinai. So Moshe makes an astounding claim: every Jewish soul remembers, if not directly, indirectly, being there. This trope recurs in Devarim a few times, such as Nitzavim:

Our survival in exile, as a people, depends on our collective memory. And our collective memory depends on our personally rescuing that memory and acting on it.

The idea that someone wakes up one day and discovers that a percentage of their genes comes from Jews does not make that person Jewish. Learning to pronounce lechayim makes you as Jewish as learning to pronounce Stiyu = (stee-you) = Be strong; makes you Cherokee. It just doesn't work like that. Both Native Americans and Jews are our collective memories, both peoples are our histories. Our actions are infused with our remembrances, and so are our identities.

One of the interesting aspects of the prayers of RH is that is has ten verses about memory inserted in the Musaf Amidah. We call those the Zichoronot verses, and each verse, if you read its context is about God remembering something and God taking action.

In our goal of imitatio Dei, imitating God, we too have six remembrances in the traditional siddur, which I wanted us to revisit, in part because they teach us what is being Jewish.

We are supposed to remember those six things every day. I want us to notice a few things: First, most of the remembrances are taken from Devarim. Second, they are not presented in the order that they appear in Devarim, even though if you are rushing you may not notice the editor's hand.

To remember is to move the past into the present, and make it contemporary. It is to make your present inspired by your memory. Jews don't remember stuff and leave it there, sitting in the museum of memory. We take action. We are a people of leap of action, not so much a leap of faith.

~ What are the sources of oppression?

~ Jews are the ones who are coming out of Egypt every day - personally, we need to be aware of what is preventing us to grow. Each and every day we are leaving Egypt. Mitzrayim is the word for narrow places. This source is asking us, personally and collectively, what are the fears that hold us back? What are the narrow visions we need to shed so as to embrace open spaces and growth?

~ You need to know what you leave - but you also need to know where you're going. That is Sinai. Sinai is standing in the presence of radical transcendence, where there is no lying, no dissimulation, no pretending. Sinai is the open spaces where we encounter the sacred. But we are not alone: we teach our children. Our journey is not ours alone, it is transmitted to our children. Our values are not ours alone, they have to be transmitted. We are children, parents and grandparents. We receive and we pass on. Being capable of meeting the transcendent and passing it on is what Sinai represents. Sinai is also our compass: we orient ourselves towards what expands our consciousness, and takes us away from mochin de-katnut, from thinking and behaving small, petty, mean; towards the mochin de-gadlut, our expanded awareness and actions.

As we move in the world, always leaving Egypt and always striving to get to Sinai, we need to know that there is Amalek in the world. There are people who cut down those who are weak, the stragglers, the tired and the famished.

We need to look at those in three ways: First, the weak among us: the ones who are poor, weak, depressed, struggling. There are people in the world who profit and delight in making the weak suffer.

Second, the aspects of humanity that are in need of help: our intolerance, our fears, our rage. There are people in the world whose desire for power and control stops at nothing, and would set the world on fire if that suits their plans.

And third, the internal aspects of each of us, individuals. There are people who prey on those, who simply can't help but try to diminish us, stoking our insecurities and imperfections.

The double commandment: to remember and not to forget points to the need to remind ourselves not to become one of those - every day. If you let Amalek pick off the weaker parts, you are allied with Amalek. It is the business of the Jews to be concerned with the weak. Our tradition is devoted to resisting those forces. Amalek is an ongoing reality in the world, and it can seize us. And of course this is about a memory of Amalek, and not the people itself.

This is our parsha. I have to say this is the hardest one for me to remember. When I try to list of the six remembrances, I have the hardest time to remember this one. Because it saddens me to know that we forget. We forget our greatness, and so we provoke God. We forget our collective mandate, and so we provoke God. We provoke God when we refuse to live the freedom we have been given. When we prefer the bad stuff that we know and not break out into the wilderness, and we do not go to the open spaces, and we do not think expansively, we provoke. By letting Amalek take over our thoughts and actions, we provoke. By not fighting the Amalek outside and inside, by justifying our own bad choices with an infinite number of rationalizations we provoke God. And so this remembrance is to resist all that.

So Miriam gets a skin disease because of the lashon hara, the evil speech in the desert. After remembering that there is Amalek within and without, this is a warning regarding how we use our words. Do not think, the editor of the siddur seems to be saying, that malicious words are not covered in this, you may avoid being Amalek, but you may end up being Miriam, who was a remarkable person, and taught Torah, and was a profetess, and stood up to her father and to Pharao's wishes - but who, at a key moment, does something harmful because of careless words. Speech is a gift: something we need to control and use properly. And we need to remember this all the time. Especially today, when it is so in to call names and make up nicknames to those we disagree with, and paint entire groups with one careless brush. We as a people can do this easily - and wherever you are in the political spectrum today, you are witnessing this if not doing it yourself.

This the last one of the traditional remembrances. It is fundamental because in our voyage from Egypt to Sinai, we have to remember to stop along the way, and enjoy it. Shabbat helps: if you take it seriously, and not just another day to get distracted, it is the primary day of connection with you family, friends and your life. And the world. There is so much beauty in the world - but to appreciate we need to stop our constant distractions. The world also needs a Shabbat - a moment of rest. In times when news are 24/7, Shabbat also helps to keep us in our size: many things happen that you don't control, and that is ok. No need to know about them today, you will make exactly the same difference when you learn about them tomorrow. Admitting that we do not have control on many aspects of our lives is a gift of Shabbat. Shabbat helps us focus on our ultimate values, and on our journey.

Now I want to offer another remembrance, that the siddur does not add, but that I think is as fundamental to our current lives as we go from Egypt to Sinai, as individuals and as a collective. In part my instinct is always a round seven number. Six is a number that always makes me feel something is missing. Seven is a Jewish number, six less so. But I know why the editor of the siddur did not put it in: there is no expressed commandment to remember it, but more and more I think that ought to be.

So what I want us to remember is that the Earth is also not ours. Not our possession. We are, really, residents on it for a few years, in journeys, both personally and collectively, from Egypt to Sinai. The Earth as God's creation, this amazing planet in need of care - this is also a remembrance I wish we have as we go from our journey from Egypt to Sinai. So maybe this week, as we remember these six remembrances, we will have the strength to add another one - that we need to take seriously the needs of the planet, too.

Shabbat Shalom.