September 21, 2026

Begin By Remembering

Forgetfulness leads to exile, while remembrance is the secret of redemption.

Israel ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov, spent years as a wandering healer and teacher in the villages of eighteenth-century Ukraine before founding the Hasidic movement. He taught porters, tailors, and farmers that closeness to God did not require scholarship, only sincerity and presence, at a time when Jewish learning was reserved for an educated elite. This saying, handed down among his students, treats forgetting and remembering as spiritual states we move between daily, not just historical events. It speaks to beginning again because every morning offers a chance to remember who we meant to be before the day pulls us elsewhere.