Yizkor Thought - The Blessing of Remembering & The Blessing of Forgetting (Yom Kippur 5781/2020)

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi Efrem Goldberg’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

[Music] when i say the word memory perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is your cell phone your laptop how much memory does it have left but the truth is that the human memory our capacity to remember to hold on or to let things go or to forget not by choice extraordinarily complicated the more memory our devices seem to hold the less memory we seem to be capable of losing our memory is complicated it's a curse but a perfect memory may not be such a blessing the puzzlic that we read is part of our dhawa naganyam kippur i remember i remember the loving kindness of your youth you followed me into a barren desert you followed me followed me into unchartered territories barrett's loser to a land that was not fertile that had not been planted that it wasn't blossoming on yom kippur on the day of judgment hashem looks back nostalgically on our history as a people on our relationship with him and he remembers specifically the wonderful times of our journey in the midbar in the desert the love the loyalty the embrace nostalgically recalling just how wonderful how joyful how closely we felt connected how inspirational how uplifting to look back on our history in that way but the problem is it's just not true those 40 years were filled with rebelliousness we were abstinent and stubborn we were non-compliant and non-observant those 40 years we were ungrateful and complaining yes we had moments of closeness and intimacy and greatness but those 40 years were more accurately defined by an adolescence and a rebelliousness so how can the past like how can god truthfully say

Jump to a moment

1. 0:00[Music] when i say the word memory perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is…
2. 0:30we seem to be capable of losing our memory is complicated it's a curse but a…
3. 1:31back on our history in that way but the problem is it's just not true those…
4. 2:34truly a painful curse painful not only for the person going through it but those around…
5. 3:36the person who made the insensitive thoughtless comment 50 years ago it is as biting and…
6. 4:37pain and to let go of the grudge and to let go of the parts of…
7. 5:08six seven months it's been complicated and difficult emotionally grueling for each and every one of…
8. 6:09street behind the mask not only to choose what we remember but to choose what we…
9. 7:11experience yom kippur and we emphasize and focus what to let go of and forget it's…
10. 8:12who will recite yiskar tomorrow at home let us remember all those who pave the way…

Every second of this shiur plays inside Lehallel — a filtered YouTube library of Torah, music and shiurim. No ads, no comments, no autoplay.