Re’eh / Each of us …we were slaves

There are six remembrances that are included in the siddur at the end of Shacharis. Remembering the Exodus, Shabbos, G-d’s presence at Mt. Sinai, what happened to Miriam, how you provoked G-d in the desert, and to destroy Amalek.

This list does not include all the times the word zachor (to remember) appears in the Torah. Nor does it include any of the seven times we are told v’zacharta (and you shall remember) — all of which appear in the book of Devarim (5:15, 8:2, 8:18, 15:15, 16:12, 24:18,22).

Interestingly, the instruction to remember Sinai is really “not to forget,” as the verse does not even have the root word zachor.

Why are the v’zacharta’s not included in the daily remembrances? Five of them are repeats: “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt.” One of them is a reminder of the 40 years journey. The remaining one reminds us to remember G-d, for He is the One Who gives us the strength to prevail.

Our original list of six does include a reminder of the 40 years — not of the way G-d tested us for 40 years to see if we’d nevertheless fulfill the mitzvos (8:2), but of how we provoked G-d. Our daily pick of these two is more important for us because it reminds us not to repeat what we did wrong.

Perhaps remembering the Exodus, Shabbos and G-d’s presence at Sinai would be enough to remind us on a daily basis to remember G-d Who gives us strength.

Which leaves us with remembering that we were slaves in Egypt, which can also be subsumed in the “remembering the Exodus.”

And yet, it is mentioned five times in Devarim, twice in our parsha. Even if it is not a remembrance of its own merit, the fact that it is repeated so much should suggest it is quite an important detail in the overall remembrance of the Exodus.

This assumption requires us to see how the instruction appears in each context.

The first one (5:15) appears in the context of the Ten Commandments, as a reminder for why we must keep Shabbos — because we were slaves in Egypt, and this was one of the first ingredients of freedom from Pharaoh. One day off per week.