The Treasure of Our Stories
February 22, 2010
Fourth in a series
We are our stories.
While each of us has a unique identity that feels like it comes from inside us individually, we are not separate from our family, our community, our heritage. The stories about what our fathers and mothers did and what was done to them, how they lived and died, where they went and how they lived form the foundation of Jewish identity.
Jewish stories present archetypes and role models. They weave together thousands of years of history. We understand our place from what happened in ancient Egypt, in the kingdom of Judea, through Spain, perhaps Poland and Ellis Island, Israel and our own north shore community. That’s why it is so important to teach our stories to our children and grandchildren, so that they will know who they are too.
We all have stories about our parents when they were young and the pivotal life events that shaped them and brought them together. The small stories are as important as the big ones: the boyfriend or girlfriend who would never have become the spouse but for some incident or friend or lucky bit of timing. We don’t need to hear them often, but we do need to hear them.
We learn morality from stories, not from being told to be moral. We saw what happened when other people behaved in certain ways. The books we read and movies we watch immerse us in other people’s stories, where we pick up grains of truth or wisdom that we can apply in our own lives.
Elie Wiesel wrote: “Jewish history unfolds in the present… it affects our life and our role in society… Were it not for his memory, which encompasses us all, the Jew would not be Jewish, or more precisely, he would have ceased to exist.”
That’s why it matters that we stay in touch with specifically Jewish stories. When we study the same parashah from the Torah year after year, we find new insights and new connections. There are plenty of excellent non-Jewish writers and secular stories. But consider as you pick up that next book or choose that next movie that Jewish stories are often richer and offer greater rewards because we have an innate understanding of where they came from.
Jewish stories not only teach us. They reinforce our identity. They form a foundation for us to create our own stories, which become our own contribution to the endless Jewish narrative.
