This edition of Comment, edited by James K.A. Smith, explores the relationship between memory and tradition. In our devotion to progress and technology, we lopped off our memory–as if tradition was what was holding us back. But it turns out forgetting hobbles progress too. A biblical imagination remembers forward. The remembering enjoined by the Torah looks forward to a “time to come” (Deut. 6:20). The biblical command to remember is written in the future tense.
