Friday, 24 June 2016

Religion and Cultural Memory (tr. Rodney Livingstone),
Jan Assmann, Stanford University Press, 2006, page 18

Jan Assmann's second cultural memory formation technique from the book of Deuteronomy is education and "conversational remembering".

Transmission to succeeding generations through communication, circulation: always talk about it, everywhere and on every occasion: "And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, wgen you lie down and wgen you rise up" (6:7; see also 11:20).

This one can also be seen in practice in a later generation.

See also the L-rd's reminder to Joshua after Moses' death: "This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate therein day and night" (Joshua 1:8). The law should not only be "in your heart", but also "in your mouth".