“Your Story,” Rabbi Elaine Zecher’s Shabbat Awakenings

September 12, 2025 | 19 Elul 5785

Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection, as we make our way toward Shabbat. You can also listen to it as a podcast.

What is your story?

This is the time of year in the Jewish calendar when the experience of these days invites us to reflect on the story of our own lives. In the process of doing so, we can ask how it sounds when we retell it? What part makes us cringe or proud or regretful? Where do we place our gratitude and appreciation?

In this week’s portion, Ki Tavo, we also hear our story as told by those who have made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to offer the first fruits. They recall the story of the Exodus and use the same language we find in our seder that begins with

“My father was a fugitive Aramean. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and… became a great and very populous nation…the Egyptians dealt harshly with us…the Eternal heard our plea and…freed us…and brought us to this land….wherefore I now bring the first fruits…” (Deut 26:5-10)

What we don’t read in the seder but do read this week is what follows a few verses later. This part is about how we’ve taken the responsibility upon ourselves to act in righteous ways.

“I have given to the Levite [who had no land or food of their own], the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, just as you have commanded me.” (Deut 26:13)

And then comes an important recognition:

“I have not forgotten.” Lo shakhahti וְלֹ֥א שָׁכָֽחְתִּי.

In context, it speaks of not forgetting the mitzvot, the sacred obligations, specifically how we regard and treat those most vulnerable. Stated here is that reminder not to forget those often ignored whose voices may not be as strong or vocal as our own.

From ancient times to today, our stories are interwoven with the lives of those around us, especially those suffering and feeling powerless.

Judaism embeds in each of our stories not to forget the stories of those whose lives need to be told. “I have not forgotten” is, as the Torah scholar Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, has noted memory translated into action.

As we enter these days of self-reflection of our own lives, let us not forget the sacred obligation upon us all to remember and care for one another.

Shabbat Shalom! שבת שלום

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and impressions. Share with me what you think. Your email goes directly to me!

Rabbi Elaine Zecher