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Prayer for the Day

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Prayer for the Day: 28/01/2019

28/01/2019

BBC Radio 4 - Prayer for the Day, 28/01/2019

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day, with Rabbi Alex Chapper.

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day, with Rabbi Alex Chapper, community rabbi at Borehamwood & Elstree Synagogue.

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rabbi Alex Chapper, Community Rabbi
Borehamwood & Elstree Synagogue

Good Morning

It’s been long known that most people’s earliest memories only go back to about age 3 and it was Freud who coined the term “childhood amnesia” to describe this loss of memory from the infant years.

And yet, Jewish tradition calls on us to remember the Revelation at Sinai - an event that took place over 3000 years ago.

This imperative is recorded in Deuteronomy: “Be careful and guard yourself so that you do not forget the things that your eyes have seen, so that they will not leave your hearts all the days of your life.”

But how can anyone be expected to remember something that took place so long ago and at which they weren’t even present?

The key to this is to be found in the very next verse that says: “Teach them to your children and your children’s children.”

The best way to ensure something isn’t forgotten is to impart our knowledge of it to young, fresh minds.

This isn’t about information, today, for facts everyone relies on their favourite search engine, but this is about something much more important, it’s about identity - who we are, our heritage - the ideals and values that we live our life by.

If they’re truly important to us then we must teach them to our children so the next generation has a clear understanding of their origins.

Societies change, fashions change but values are eternal.

So let’s pray that we remember what our parents taught us.

Let’s remember to hold on to those memories.

And let’s teach those ideals and values to our children.

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