{"id":52335,"date":"2019-03-27T23:19:54","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T21:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=52335"},"modified":"2022-10-19T22:39:23","modified_gmt":"2022-10-19T19:39:23","slug":"keeping-a-creative-tension-between-past-and-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/keeping-a-creative-tension-between-past-and-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping A Creative Tension Between Past And Future"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[550,428],"acf":{"old_id":"52335","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":52269,"related_cahpter":"185","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Each of us is the last link in a chain; each of us is also the progenitor of a new one","content":"

\u201cAsk your parents and they will tell you, your elders and they will inform you\u201d (32:7).<\/span><\/p>\n

It is intuitive and commonplace to say that we must look to the past for wisdom. As individuals, we take strength and guidance from our elders\u2019 experiences. And as a collective, memory is a key to our survival as a people, when so many ancient peoples disappeared.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once in class, Elie Wiesel told his students: \u201cYou know, when I have a difficult question in my life, I think of my mother, and I wonder what she would advise. If it is a difficult <\/span>communal<\/span><\/em> question, I think of my father. This has helped me often.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Another time, when discussing his problems with traditional theology after the Holocaust, he said, \u201cBut I did not stop observing the commandments\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I remembered my father, and his father. How could I be the last to keep our traditions alive?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And yet, looking to the past is only half the equation. To only consider the past is to risk avoiding the demands of the present moment. We must look ahead as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another tale from Elie Wiesel: when the future Hasidic leader Dov Ber of Mezrich\u2019s childhood home burned down in a fire, he saw his mother weeping. \u201cWhy are you crying, Mama?\u201d asked the boy, \u201cWe can buy or make new things, we can rebuild our house!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am not crying for all the furniture, the tablecloths, even the few books we had. But we had an irreplaceable family tree that extended all the way back to King David. Now it is gone. That is why I weep,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t worry, Mama,\u201d said the future leader. \u201cI will begin a new family tree, one even more beautiful than the one we lost.\u201d And he did, raising children and grandchildren, and dozens of students who would in turn become some of the greatest creative leaders of Eastern European Jewry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each of us is the last link in a chain. Each of us is also the progenitor of a new one, whether through our children, or our students and those whom we influence.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Baal Shem Tov taught that forgetfulness leads to exile, while redemption depends on memory. His great-grandson, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, added that the memory of the past is very important, but the most essential memory is of the future we want to create. Recalling that future helps us work toward it every day. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is the creative tension between past and future that has kept Judaism alive for millennia. Look to your elders, and see them look back at you, with the weight of their experience, yes. But also with pride, confidence, and faith in your abilities. \u201cThe world is your now\u201d, they say to us. \u201cWhat will you do with it?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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