Tanya White
Times of Israel, Aug. 9, 2024
“The current war Israel is fighting has suffered from many failures, one of the greatest of which is the failure of the echelons of leadership to provide an effective narrative.”
At the end of the hit musical “Hamilton,” there is a song whose lyrics continue to resonate with me: “Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” Alexander Hamilton remained in the shadow of the more prominent and famous founding fathers, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. His story only gained popularity thanks to the creative genius of Lin-Manuel Miranda: he brought an unknown story to life by reframing a periphery character, using contemporary music, drama, and characters. Besides the brilliance of the production itself, what Miranda did was demonstrate the power of a story.
Our legacies depend on who keeps our stories alive. When my daughter’s best friend was killed in Gaza, she and her friends, stunned at the news, sat around our kitchen table attempting to compose a eulogy for him, and struggling to bear witness to his essence in a few sentences. She asked: “How will we go on? How will we ever be the same?” I told her: “This is now your story.” There was the story of before her friend was and now there is the story of after his death. My daughter and her friends were now the keepers of his story. Even when pain seems unbearable, bereaved family and friends derive enormous comfort when others bear witness to their loved one’s story, as we all have witnessed over the last 10 months.
Stories define us. They shape us and endow us with identity. They help us answer the most central questions of existence: Who are we, where do we come from, and what do we live for? Stories provide ways of imposing meaning on what could otherwise feel like an arbitrary existence. This is true for the nation as well as the individual: Judaism is a story-telling religion. The Torah, more than a book of law or theology, is a book of stories. It is the most authentic form of identity. … [To read the full article, click here]