Some of us remember the events of 1929.   That was the year when Franklyn Baur, the great tenor and pioneer user of the electric microphone recorded Irving Berlin’s song “Remember”.  For those who do not recall, it is a love song wherein the singer pines for his beloved who forgot to “remember the night…” after she “promised to “forget me not”.   Those whose memory does not quite go back to the 1920s may recall that in the 50’s Elvis Presley recorded another song “I Forgot to Remember to Forget” a lament for his inability to get past a lost love.  There are many dozens of old and new songs with ‘remember’ in their title or lyrics.  Often, they express regret for something that should have been remembered but was forgotten or vice versa.

This Shabbat is in that genre.  Shabbat Zachor - the Shabbat to Remember – is observed on the last Shabbat before Purim, right before we read about Haman the Amalekite’s failed attempt to make some money by destroying the Jews.  Of course, we all remember how Esther, a beautiful but jewishly challenged favorite of the King, finally steps up to save her people by tricking the king into thinking that she is sleeping with Haman.  Remembering anything yet?

Do you remember that 1929, the year when good old Franklyn recorded Irving’s song also marked the ‘birth’ of Popeye the Sailor Man and the first Academy Awards, Babe Ruth first batted .500 (which means he missed half of the time), Motorola made the first car radio and penicillin was discovered?  Not a totally disastrous year!  No, I haven’t forgotten to remember the stock market crash, but some great things happened before the end of October.

Often, too often, we remember the defeats and disasters of Jewish history and forget to recall our people’s great accomplishments.  Frequently, we forget the joy, warmth, comfort and spiritual refreshment found in Jewish life, choosing only to remember its inconveniences, costs and claims on our attention.  Some remember only the Judaism of their childhood and forget that, today, Judaism takes all kinds of forms that can build the wonderful memories of the future.  For example, if you remember using only cheap tin groggers to wipe out Haman’s name you can now make and remake your personal grogger with our own Stuart Rubin’s iPhone application from www.groggerfactory.com.  And you will remember to carry it with you all year.

So, now – grateful for the antibiotics that cured last season’s bronchitis, after having used  the internet to find all these neat facts about 1929 and share them with you, I will remember to download my new grogger, get in the car and flip on the CD player so I can listen to the Megillah where, in a verse sung during Havdalah at the conclusion of this and every Shabbat, Esther, who could have remembered other things, reminds us that along with all the troubles, “the Jews had” and continue to have “light, and gladness, joy, and honor” (Esther 8:16).

Sometimes it’s just a question of what you forget to choose to remember.

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Purim!

Rabbi Steve Denker