The verse says in Parshas Ha’azinu [32:7] “Remember bygone days; understand the years of each generation; ask your father and he will tell you, your grandfather and he will say it over to you”. This pasuk, even on a very simple and basic level is telling us that a person has to have an appreciation for history.
A Jew, especially, has to have an appreciation of what was before him. If a person has an appreciation of what was, of tradition, of what has transpired over the years, then he is a person that can deal with the present even better. A person has an obligation to remember and to understand and to try to see the Hand of G-d (Hashgocha) in history.
Willaim Shirer used as an epigraph to his Rise and Fall of the Third Reich(1959) the quote from U.S. philosopher George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This is a truth. One needs to remember past history (Zechor Yemos Olam).
On a simple level, Binu Shnos Dor V’Dor (Understand each and every generation) is redundant. It would appear to be a poetic restatement of the beginning of the verse. On a homiletic level however, the Menachem Zion offers a very nice interpretation of this expression.
Yes, one must understand history and take the lessons of history and apply it to our generation, but also Binu ‘Shnos’ dor v’dor. He homiletically says the word ‘Shnos’ is derived not from the word ‘Shana’ (year) but from the word ‘Shoneh’ (different). The meaning is that you must understand the changes from one generation to the next.
A person cannot blindly apply the same rules that worked in the past to the present situation. If he tries, he will fall short. Each generation is different. A person cannot glibly say “That’s the way it was; therefore that’s the way it has to be”. Binu Shnos Dor V’dor — take the lesson of history, but bear in bind the changes from generation to generation. Times change, people change, and circumstances change. Sometimes a person has to alter and redirect and not merely go with what was.
If someone today were to send a half million troops to the beaches of Normandy, he would rightly be called a “meshuganer”. While 70 years ago there was indeed a need to fight a battle on the beaches of Normandy, that battle is now over; that battle has already been fought; and that battle has already been won. We cannot always continually fight the same battles over again.
Understand the changes (‘shnos’) in each generation. Understand that each generation has its own set of problems and own set of rules and own set of circumstances. We must remember the days gone by, but couple that remembrance with an understanding of the changes that take place in each generation.
In this connection, I have quoted in the past the ‘Chassideshe vort’ of Reb Levi Yitzchak that Eliyahu (rather than Moshe Rabbenu or anyone else) was the one designated to resolve all of the Gemarah’s “Teykus”. The reason, the Berditchever says, is because Chaz”al say Eliyahu never died– he has been around in all generations. To pasken shaylos we need someone who has an understanding of each generation to pasken the Shaylah for that generation. Therefore, only Eliyahu who was present during all generations will be qualified to resolve the “Teykus”.
