Shabbat Zachor, Parshat Tetzaveh
“ … Timcheh et zecher Amalek mitachat hashamayim”
The special Maftir reading for Shabbat Zachor—the Shabbat before Purim—obligates Israel to destroy the nation of Amalek. This source of this mitzvah is first found in the final pesukim of parshat Beshalach and the section which Chazal established as the Torah reading for Purim itself.
There we read that—after relating Amalek’s perfidious attack of on the weakest stragglers in the rear of the Israelite camp—Hashem promises Moshe (in the almost exact words of the yet-to-be-commanded mitzvah): “ … ki machoh emcheh et zecher Amalek mitachat hashamayim.” The twice-mentioned requirement to obliterate the very memory of Amalek has troubled some over the years—those who see this obligation as one that seems to conflict with the moral ethic laid out in our divinely given Torah.
The discomfort many felt (and still feel) has become far more pronounced over the past century, perhaps, the result of our growing realization of (and sensitivity to) harsh treatment of the innocent and less-fortunate. The very idea of destroying those not involved in the “original sin” of the unprovoked attack is seen as an anathema to the entire ethical approach fostered by our tradition!
And that discomfort is fully understandable … if we do not understand the mitzvah.
Consider: Our texts are filled with nations, countries and empires that have oppressed us, persecuted us and even killed us—yet, God never commanded us not to forget their evil nor to allow it to exist! Yet that is what He charged us to do against Amalek! Why were this enemy’s actions considered so unique as to deserve complete destruction?
It is essential to understand that the purpose of the commandment is not to visit revenge against a nation or its population. If that were so, we could rightfully argue that the punishment did not “fit the crime,” (mandating the destruction of a nation that no longer exists) punishing individuals who do no evil and, heaven forfend, even being guilty of a “disproportionate” reaction to a single attack.
No. Hashem had no “need” for us to take revenge—for, in truth, only He knows what proper retribution is—“Kel nekamot Hashem!” Nor did He “need” His people to destroy an entire nation; something He Himself could have done. What God did expect was the creation of a moral force in His world to fight against—and to remove—the source of pure evil, a malevolent cancer that would prevent the establishment of a moral world! And that struggle to perfect the world and prepare it for God’s revelation (“l’taken olam bemalchut Shakai”) depends upon the removal of the thoroughly malicious ideas, destructive philosophies and corruptive values that undermine humanity. Hashem demands courage to reject such cultures that sanctify murder, glorify rape and purify pillage—even when many find reason to support them.
Therefore, we must proclaim that we do not fight for revenge—we struggle for morality, for ethics and for the sanctity of life! Sadly, Hashem knew that this struggle would continue into the future, “midor dor—from generation to generation,” knowing full-well that the depravity of “Amalekism,”—the wantonness of attacking the innocent and defenseless—would poison future cultures … and spread around the world.
Haman learned it, and spread that hatred throughout Persia, the Romans followed in the same path, the medieval Church fathers knew it and taught it to their followers and so did the Inquisitors, the Chmelnikis, Czars and, of course, the Nazis, yemach shemo. … And it is the struggle we wage today. And that is why Hashem charged us: “Zachor!” “Never Forget!”
Our very existence depends on remembering that … and so does the existence of an ethical, moral world.
Rabbi Neil Winkler is the rabbi emeritus of the Young Israel of Fort Lee, and now lives in Israel.
