This week saw the passing of former Sephardic Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron who was the 104th victim of the Coronavirus in Israel.
In his hagaddah, he shares about the importance of telling stories: “In my old age I collected stories that I wrote down and passed out to family members. I was then asked ‘How can someone whose time is so precious occupy himself with tall tales?’. I answered that my work taught me to tell stories – my work as an educator, as a rabbi and as a father to my children. When our children were small, I would tell them stories – sweet as poetry – before they went to sleep. The children loved the stories and became attached to me through them. I loved to recall the days of my youth in Jerusalem with all the characters and experiences from those days. I strived to bring up from my childhood the beautiful and the good.
When they grew up, they asked me to continue telling the story. I always endeavored to tell stories that would teach them something. There is enormous importance to a story by which it is possible to pass along a particular message through the thoughts conveyed. And therefore it is written ‘So that you will tell it in the ears of your child’. A story with content and meaning can bring others close and strengthen them, can provide encouragement and consolation. Where our children are concerned, we tell them stories so that they will continue to walk in our path and in the future proclaim: ‘And this is the story our fathers told us.
What is the story we tell? What is the story people will tell about us?
These are relavent questions, particularly, when we face our own mortality. T
he Gemara in tractate Brachot pushes us to see our challenges as growth opportunities- “when you observe challenges coming your way, self-reflect.” In other words, a chance to rewrite our story in light of the reality we face. I once heard that a young person is not juat someone young in years but someone who can still tell stories. May we all be inspired and inspire others in the story we tell.
May Rabbi Bakshi Doron’s memory, and the memory of all those lost to COVID-19, be for a blessing.