[Avodah] Haazinu "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana

[Cantor Wolberg]

32:7  "Remember the days of yore, understand the years of generation  
after generation. Ask your father and he will relate it to you, your  
elders, and they will tell you."

This implies historical tradition being imparted to each generation in  
a predominantly oral culture.  Many people are foolish and refuse to  
believe that the past is quite relevant.
Hence, much human suffering and error is caused by moral myopia and a  
refusal to connect the dots of the past to the exclamation points of  
the present. Generation after generation    were brought down for sins  
of immorality, cruelty, hatred and bigotry. We always think of history  
as the story of the past, but more important, it should be a guide for  
the present!

English historian, James Anthony Froude, eloquently stated: "History  
is a voice for ever sounding across the centuries the laws of right  
and wrong. Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but  
the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity. For every false  
word or unrighteous deed, for cruelty and oppression, for lust or  
vanity, the price has to be paid at last; not always by the chief  
offenders, but paid by someone. Justice and truth alone endure and  
live."

rw
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