We know that knowledge is important, but we sometimes forget how connected it is to memory. This notion makes a short, but quite important, appearance, in the beginning of this week’s parashah, and the new book of the Torah we start this week, Shemot. We are told of all the brothers, Jacob’s sons, that go down to Egypt. We learn of the passing of a generation and the tremendous growth of the Israelite nation throughout that time. But the king who arose over Egypt saw that the Israelites were numerous and felt threatened by them.
The Torah tells us “he did not know Joseph” (Shemot 1:8), as if to say, had he remembered Joseph’s story and the way Joseph had saved the Egyptian people during famine, he wouldn’t have felt threatened. He wouldn’t have put task-masters over them. He wouldn’t have oppressed them, wouldn’t have made life miserable for them, wouldn’t have instructed the Israelite midwives to kill all Israelite-born baby boys.
This one line of the Torah tells us that Pharaoh acted without knowledge of the past, knowledge that is predicated on memory. This happened to be about his own nation’s story, but we could apply this message to any of our lives and any of our historical contexts. We cannot be indifferent or oblivious to the past because it will affect our future. The Torah emphasizes the value of seeking out knowledge and seeking out truth. In a time where we can get information from all kinds of sources and jump to conclusions, let’s put an emphasis on gaining knowledge. Real knowledge; knowledge connected to memory. The kind of knowledge that takes into account our past and the pasts of others, the kind of knowledge that will bring us all toward a more just world.
