Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: (Devarim 8:11)

There is an English saying, “If you want to remember something, try to forget it; if you want to forget something, try to remember it.” Our minds often do the exact opposite of our intentions. In our parsha, the Torah warns, “pen tishkach” – lest you forget the Torah and Mitzvos (Devarim 8:11). The same warning, “pen tishkach”, appears in last week’s Parsha (6:12). Why does the Torah deem it necessary to repeat this?

The Oznayim L’Torah (Zalman Sorotzkin 1881–1966) suggests an answer: The passage of time naturally causes people to forget, though stronger memories endure longer. My wife’s grandmother, a Holocaust survivor illustrates this. I never heard her say a negative word about anyone, but once, she expressed dismay about war survivors who, after the war, prioritized amassing wealth. I asked her why it disturbed her so greatly, and she explained that, before the war, it was understandable how people may have thought that wealth could fulfill their desires. But she couldn’t fathom how those who suffered in the camps forgot the lesson: money does not fulfill life’s deeper needs. To her it was incomprehensible how they could forget such a powerful message.

Chazal teach that before praying to be filled with Torah, one should pray that delicacies should not enter his body. Why? Because overindulgence limits our ability to properly master the Torah. The Torah repeats the warning not to forget because the very next verse in our parsha describes becoming satiated with food – a metaphor for worldly pleasures. The Torah emphasizes that indulgence actively causes us to stray from the ways of Hashem, meriting a repeated warning.

During this vacation season, many spend money buying things that they normally wouldn’t consider. But how detrimental is that to our level of ruchnios?

I once vacationed together with a great talmid chacham who bought an expensive beer. Surprised, I asked why he spent so much money on a beer. He replied quoting Chazal, “There is no poverty in a place of wealth”, meaning that where one is living on a high standard, there is no room for penny-pinching. On vacation, certain indulgences are simply part of the experience.

This raises a broader question: Why do we vacation? The English expression, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” suggests that we need some extracurricular activities in order to refresh us so that we return to our regular schedules with more vigor and energy. This concept is illustrated in the Gemara in Shabbos which tells us that a person who is carrying a package, if he stops to rest it is considered “hanacha” (placing down), and he is liable, while if he stops to adjust his package, it is not considered “hanacha”, and he is exempt. Our vacations should be like adjusting the load – a purposeful pause to recharge us in our spiritual lives. If modest indulgence aids that goal, then that is ok. But indulging for indulgence’s sake, risks violating the Torah’s warning against forgetting Hashem.

May all our vacations give us true renewal and recharge our batteries so that we can continue to grow better than ever before in our service of Hashem.