Rabbi’s Message, April 22, 2025
By Rabbi Lauren Ben-Shoshan
This week, in the quiet days between Passover and Shavuot, our thoughts turn to Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is not coincidental that this sacred day of memory falls during the counting of the Omer, a season in which we mark the journey from liberation to revelation.
The Omer is a time of spiritual reflection and inner refinement (please see the link here for our spirituality journal series!). Each day we count brings us closer to Sinai — not just to the giving of Torah, but to the receiving of wisdom, purpose, and identity. It is during this sacred in-between space, this wilderness of counting, that we pause to remember the six million lives extinguished in the Shoah, and the countless generations whose branches were severed.
To remember the Holocaust in this season is to understand that freedom alone is not enough. We were not liberated from Egypt just to be free—we were liberated in order to become. We carry our freedom with responsibility. And among the greatest responsibilities is the preservation and transmission of memory.
The Jewish soul has always known that memory is not a passive act. Zakhor, “to remember”, is repeated throughout our Torah, not simply to preserve the past, but to shape who we become. It is an act of sacred creativity. It shapes us, it guides us, and it roots us. Today, psychologists speak of the “intergenerational self” — the idea that those who know the stories of their ancestors, including their struggles and perseverance, are more emotionally resilient and spiritually grounded. But Judaism is rooted in this wisdom. We are commanded not just to remember but to tell: to our children, and our children’s children.
Yom HaShoah is not only a day of mourning; it is a day of testimony. We listen to the words of survivors and scholars with our greater community in Reno, and at home, we light yahrzeit candles not just to grieve, but to affirm life. In doing so, we form a bridge between generations. We affirm that what happened must never be forgotten, and that who we are — our resilience, our compassion, our commitment to justice — is shaped by that sacred remembering.
As we move through the days of the Omer, may we take time not only to count days, but to make our days count. May we reflect on what it means to be heirs to both freedom and memory. And may we, through our intentional remembering, craft lives and communities that honor those who came before us, and uplift those who will come after us.
May the memories of our people be for a blessing. May our remembering be for a purpose.
