Memory – Ekev
Time after time the duty to remember comes into this week’s portion.
Judaism not only believes in remembering but makes a ritual out of it.
Every time a b’rachah is said it ensures that we do not forget the Almighty whose deeds have brought us into being and given us the world we enjoy.
The story-book little child asks, “Where did I come from?”
What the child wants is not a geographical answer (“France… Russia… South Africa…”) but a personal phenomenon (“From the love of your father and mother!”)
When as children of God we ask, “Where did the world come from?”, the Midrash warns us against looking for whatever is above, beneath or behind the universe. No: what we need to know is that a loving Creator brought the world and its inhabitants into being.
The genesis of the world was no accidental explosion, implosion or other historic event, but the design and plan of a Designer and Planner who wanted to bring into being an earthly home for His earthly creatures to inhabit, improve and adorn.
