Mardi Meditations #3

“Secret Grotto” August 25, 2025

Delightfully at the moment, this last week of August feels like the first week of Autumn. It is also the first week of the Jewish month of Elul, the time when we turn our attention to coming to terms with the previous year and preparing to usher in the new.

Tomorrow, I will begin the last formal class of my PhD program at Georgia State. When I told members of a choir that I recently joined that I was studying history and that I was responsible for 83 books and articles for the comprehensive exams that I will take next spring, they laughed and said, “Isn’t all this history going to be illegal to study soon?” I made a Fahrenheit 451 joke and moved on with my evening, but their question stuck with me. What is it about history that makes politicians so nervous?

Most politicians are making a case for the future, but they cannot actually control it. Instead, they have a vested interest in keeping public attention on the present. Any other temporal concerns must be kept as close as possible to the present to ensure a clear linkage between their zone of influence and their zone of impact. History can be useful to them, but only if it supports their preferred narrative trajectory, so some form of evidence cherry-picking becomes necessary. Historians, who are trained to take a broader view, beyond the immediate concerns of the present, and allowing for multiple possible futures, are an annoyance to any narrow agenda.

Rabbi Allen Lew reminds us that every year of our lives is embedded in a much broader cycle of arrivals and departures. Our personal histories are unique, but they are also part of vast historical flows. We cannot excuse without our ancestors, and we will leave traces for the next generations to follow. Elul reminds us that our lives are part of both cycles and lines. The illusion of power is the belief that we can control the timeline— that there even is a single timeline. A single timeline requires a single interpretation. Historians know this is impossible. So does the wisdom that constructs the Jewish calendar. Every day I get older, but it is Fall again…