40 | SEPTEMBER 15 • 2022 

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

to narrate the story of Jewish identity 
— a story rooted in the historical facts 
of the Egyptian slavery, our redemption 
from that slavery, the Divine mission 
we were given and the gift of the land 
of Israel.

NARRATIVES GIVE MEANING
Narratives are important because they 
frame the context and the meaning of 
our lives. This particular narrative — 
the story of the foundational episode of 
Jewish history — is important because 
it frames context and meaning of Jewish 
history. And, of course, it’s a narrative 
we tell over during the Pesach Seder. It’s 
instructive that the name given to the 
book we read from on Pesach night is 
the Haggadah, which itself means the 
“the telling of the story.” Again, there 
are the historical facts of our slavery in 
Egypt and our redemption, and all that 
follows — but the night of the seder 
gives us an opportunity to frame those 
events with a particular understanding 
and interpretation that helps us 
discover our very essence as Jews.
And that’s why the centerpiece of 
the seder is the interaction between 
parents and children, because it is the 
platform to hand over the meaning of 
Jewish identity and Jewish history and 
Jewish mission to the next generation, 
by telling the story of who we are and 
where we come from and why we are 
here. In relating the facts and telling 
the narrative of how, through God’s 
miracles, we came into existence as a 
nation, and that He gave us His Torah 
at Mount Sinai, and that He brought 
us into the land of Israel and that He 
gave us a Divine mission to live in 
accordance with His will, and to spread 
His light in the world, we transmit the 
essence of the Jewish story from one 
generation to the next. It’s a narrative 
that defines us both as individuals and 
as the Jewish people.
The Torah itself is a framework for 
understanding the mission and meaning 
of our lives. Why is the mitzvah of 
learning Torah so important? Why is it 

referred to by our sages as the gateway 
to all of the other mitzvot? Why is it 
that our sages declare that the merit 
of learning Torah is equal to the merit 
of all the mitzvot combined? It could 
be because, through the mitzvah of 
learning Torah, we understand the story 
of our lives and the context and the 
meaning of all of the mitzvot. 
 The mitzvot are not simply actions 
that we have to perform. With every 
mitzvah, there is an accompanying 
narrative. Only through learning Torah 
can we understand, for example, that 
Shabbos is not only about what we can 
or can’t do on a particular day of the 
week, but it’s about a day that reminds 
us of the fact that God created the 
world, and He took us out of Egypt and 
we owe our allegiance to Him.
When we give our money to charity, 
it’s with an understanding of the 
narrative that all blessings and material 
prosperity come from God and that 
He gives us this prosperity in order to 
be able to give to others and to share it 
with the world, and that when we are 
giving away money, it is not our own 
money that we are giving away, we are 
merely allocating it in accordance with 
the wishes of the One who gave it to us 
originally, God Himself. 
When we learn Torah, we understand 
that every person is created in God’s 
image and that requires of us to treat 
everyone with sensitivity, with kindness, 
with compassion, with dignity and with 
respect. So many of the mitzvot relate to 
how we treat one another and the ethics 
of these interpersonal relationships. 
These are not just actions. There is a 
narrative that surrounds it, a narrative 
of understanding and meaning of what 
it means to be a human being.
Through the halachah we are 
constantly framing our reality, and so, 
for example, when we say a blessing on 
a fruit, we are framing the reality that 
God created it and that when we enjoy 
it, we do so as a gift from Him. When 
we wake up in the morning and say 
thank you God for having returned our 

souls, we are acknowledging the gift of 
life, and the very fact that we are alive 
and can breathe and function is a gift 
from God, which we can appreciate and 
rejoice in.
This idea of constructing narratives 
also touches on the essence of 
leadership. One of the words for a 
leader in the Torah is nagid (Samuel 
2:5:2). The Radak says nagid comes 
from the Hebrew word neged, which 
means “facing” — the idea is that 
people face the leader, looking toward 
them for guidance, support and 
direction. But, perhaps there’s another 
meaning of nagid, based on the word 
higaditi from our parshah, “to tell the 
story.” One of the responsibilities of 
leadership is to provide the narrative 
and tell the overarching story of our 
lives; to frame the times we live in and 
place them within a wider, meaningful 
context.
Each of us can be a nagid. Each of 
us is called on to play leadership roles 
in one way or another. Some people 
have official positions within society, 
but everyone is involved in influencing 
and leading the people around them in 
some way. 
We play leadership roles in our 
families, among our friends, in our 
communities, in our business or other 
kinds of organizations, and in society in 
general. Parents, especially, are leaders, 
who frame the meaning and values 
of their children’s lives. Providing the 
narrative for life is one of the most 
sacred dimensions of parenting. 
 Whether it’s among our children, our 
peers, our communities, our places of 
work, each of us has the opportunity 
to create the narrative, to frame 
experiences, to provide shape, meaning 
and context to our own lives and the 
lives of those around us — to lead by 
example and inspire virtue in others. 
The story is ours to tell. 

Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein, who has a PhD. 

in Human Rights Law, is the chief rabbi of South 

Africa. This article first appeared on aish.com.

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