I would say that the selection and the abstraction are one. The injunction of Exodus is not to remember the quotidian details of the lives of the ancient Hebrews, but the narrative lessons that may apply to our lives and the lives of others despite the differences in detail. This is also the lesson of Borges' "Funes the Memorious," that remembering everything in full particularity is paralyzing.
The difficulty is choosing what abstraction is truest, and that's the heart of the connection between memory and ethics. Do you remember the principle of being compassionate to the stranger, or do you wallow in the memory of your own tribe's exile only? Not a theoretical question in modern Jewish history, sadly.
I would say that the selection and the abstraction are one. The injunction of Exodus is not to remember the quotidian details of the lives of the ancient Hebrews, but the narrative lessons that may apply to our lives and the lives of others despite the differences in detail. This is also the lesson of Borges' "Funes the Memorious," that remembering everything in full particularity is paralyzing.
The difficulty is choosing what abstraction is truest, and that's the heart of the connection between memory and ethics. Do you remember the principle of being compassionate to the stranger, or do you wallow in the memory of your own tribe's exile only? Not a theoretical question in modern Jewish history, sadly.