EXOD159 The history of storytelling as an essential part of moral education begins in Parashat Bo. It is quite extraordinary how, on the brink of the Exodus, Moses turns to the future and to the duty of parents to educate their children about the story that was shortly to unfold. In fact, he does so three times: "When your children ask you, 'What is this service to you?' You shall answer, 'It is the Passover service to God. He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians, sparing our homes'" (this verse and previous); "On that day, you shall tell your child, 'It is because of this that God acted for me when I left Egypt'" (Exodus 13:8); "Your child may later ask you, 'What is this?' You shall answer him, 'With a show of power, God brought us out of Egypt, the place of slavery'" (Exodus 13:14). This is truly extraordinary. The Israelites have not yet emerged into the dazzling light of freedom. They are still slaves. Yet already Moses is directing their minds to the far horizon of the future and giving them the responsibility of passing on their story to succeeding generations. It is as if Moses were saying: Forget where you came from and why, and you will eventually lose your identity, your continuity, and raison d'être. You will come to think of yourself as the mere member of a nation among nations, one ethnicity among many. Forget the story of freedom and you will eventually lose freedom itself. .... Moses ... knew that without a specific identity it is almost impossible not to lapse into whatever is the current idolatry of the age--rationalism, idealism, nationalism, fascism, communism, postmodernism, relativism, individualism, hedonism, or consumerism, to name only the most recent. The alternative, a society based on tradition alone, crumbles as soon as respect for tradition dies, which it always does at some stage or another. Identity, which is always particular, is based on story, the narrative that links me to the past, guides me in the present, and places on me the responsibility for the future. ... The Jewish story is in its way the oldest of all, yet ever young, and we are each a part of it. It tells us who we are and who our ancestors hoped we would be. Storytelling is the great vehicle of moral education. It was the Torah's insight that a people who told their children the story of freedom and its responsibilities would stay free for as long as human kind lives and breathes and hopes.