From the last page first: What Moses, memory and magazines teach us about legacy

Published October 2, 2025

Rabbi Elizabeth Hersh is senior rabbi at Temple Emanuel and a member of the St. Louis Rabbinical and Cantorial Association, which coordinates the d’var Torah for the Jewish Light.

I read newspapers and magazines backwards – last page first. Even if I am not actually reading, I flip to the end first. I have also been known to look at the end of a novel before I am finished. (It is hard for me to close my eyes not knowing what happens to the characters with whom I am thoroughly engaged.) I suspect this comes from my Conservative upbringing as the siddur opened right to left. From a young age I believed reading of importance happened this way.

Therefore, it is perfectly logical that my favorite part of the magazine Vanity Fair is the last page(s) which happens to involve an interview with the famous person. The star is asked a variety of questions about their inner life and thoughts. It reads as an introspective piece, and an insight into what brings one peace of mind and joy. Who are your heroes? What pieces of fiction have moved your soul?

This week’s Torah portion is Ha’azinu, a prayer-poem gifted to the Jewish People. As Moses nears the last moments of his physical life, he presents the people with a part of his heart. For forty years he has walked with them, argued with them and on their behalf and brought them to the precipice of a new beginning. He gave them God’s laws and taught them how to live in a community of brethren and with strangers. He brought them justice, acts of humanity and God’s love. And now it is time to bid them farewell.

In Moses’ words, he encourages the people to “Remember the days of old. Consider the years of ages past…” Memory is integral to our people. Jonathan Safron Foer wrote in Everything is Illuminated, “memory is the sixth sense for Jews.” Does he only want the people to remember all that God has done for them or does he also possess hope that they will also remember him?

A Jewish Proverb teaches that we die three times. When our heart stops beating; when we are interned, and when our name is spoken for the last time. Moses, like all our loved ones. Continues to live through the deeds and teachings which have shaped us into the souls we are. We are who we are because of those who preceded us including teachers, loved ones and friends.

And who we are as a Jewish People is shaped by our prophets, ancestors and collective history. We learn the past to know who we are. And for those who came to Judaism later in life, we must create moments of celebrations. It is about making holidays, prayers and a relationship with the Eternal One personal.

Abba Eban eloquently wrote, “A robust sense of identity has not prevented this people from sending the repercussions of its influence far and wide into the oceans of universal history. It is when historic Israel is most persistently distinctive that its universal vocation is enlarged. The lesson of history is plain. There is no salvation or significance for the Jew except when he aims high and stands straight within his own authentic frame of values.”

As we stand in a moment of time gazing into the frontier of a new Jewish year, what are our hopes? What questions do we ask of others? What do we ask of ourselves? What lessons or sacred moments would you like to begin today?

Moses, like the author of Ecclesiastes, is concerned his work is in vain. What is the song you wish to sing? As Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory wrote, “For Judaism is God’s call to human responsibility.” This song is calling us to remember and not forget. And this, my friends, leads to action, to responsibility. The verb zachor appears in various forms in the Tanach no less than 169 times. How would you like to be remembered? Open your voices to song, open your hearts to love, action and hope.