TO

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Let Us Entertain You

et

JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF METROPOLITAN DETROIT
6600 W. MAPLE, W. BLOOMFIELD, MI 48322

The most successful creative partnership
in entertainment history — Betty
Comden and Adolph Green. Everyone
knows their songs NEW YORK, NEW
YORK: THE PARTY'S OVER; LONELY
TOWN and the songs in PETER PAN.

The first however, ON THE TOWN,
launched a stream of hits that won five
Tony Awards, two Academy Award
nominations, and three Screen Writer's
Guild Awards, including the beloved
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, THE BAND
WAGON, BELLS ARE RINGING, IT'S
••••••••••••••••••••••••• ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER, GOOD
•••
•
• NEWS, WONDERFUL TOWN,
•
•
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• HALLELUJAH BABY, APPLAUSE, and
•
ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
They have been elected to the Theatre
Hall of Fame and Songwriter's Hall of
Fame.

BETTY COMDEN b ADOLPH GREEN
••• •••••••••••••••••••••••••

Saturday, April 8
9:00 p.m.

Admission $20.00

For Reserved Seats
6614000

ext. 293

FUNDED IN PART BY MICHIGAN COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS AND
THE MANNY AND NATALIE CHARACH ENDOWMENT FUND AT THE JCC

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DELEGATE ASSEMBLY

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JEWRY IN PERIL

Guest Speaker:

Michael Schneider

Executive Vice President
American Jewish
Joint Distribution Committee

TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 1989

8:00 p.m.

Adat Shalom Synagogue
29901 Middlebelt Road
Farmington Hills

Open to the community
Call 962-1880 for information

48

FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 1989

No charge

How Amalek Teaches Us
To Accentuate Judaism

RABBI MORTON YOLKUT

Special to the Jewish News

T

he Shabbat preceding
the festival of Purim
bears a special
designation in the Jewish
calendar. It is known as Shab-
bat Zachor, the Sabbath of
Remembrance. The name is
derived from the fact that on
this Sabbath we read an ad-
ditional portion of the Torah,
which begins with the word
zachor, "Remember what
Amalek did unto you, as you
came forth out of Egypt."
Why did the rabbis select
this portion to be read just
prior to Purim? Haman, the
villain of the Purim story, was
indeed a descendant of the
Amalekites. But Amalek was
not one of the greatest
enemies of our people. Has
nothing worse befallen us
during the long course of
Jewish history? What of the
battles against Babylonia,
Rome, the massacres and
pogroms that killed
thousands? True, Amalek was
the first to instigate a war
against the former slaves as
they forever left Egypt. True,
this was the first battle the
Israelites fought, and the first
battle they won. But does this
really require a special mitz-
vah to remember? Remember
what? Surely not just the
details of a battle fought
3,300 years ago!
To answer these questions,
let us re-examine the Torah's
account of the war with
Amalek: "Remember what
Amalek did unto you on the
way, as you came forth from
Egypt. How he met you on the
way, attacked you from the
rear when you were weak and
weary; and did not fear God?'
(Deut. 25:17-19)
The key to our under-
standing of Shabbat Zachor is
found in the last phrase.
Although the standard
translations apply these
words to Amalek, our sages
consider them descriptive of
the religious mentality of the
newly freed slaves. As our
rabbis later taught, "Both the
Jews and the Egyptians were
idolators." Like other nations
of antiquity, the Israelites, at
the time they left Egypt, wor-
shipped common idols. They
did not fear God.
Here was a people weak and
weary after centuries of
slavery. Nothing was special
about them, nothing marked
them different from other

Morton Yolkut is rabbi of
Congregation B'nai David.

wandering tribes. They were
just a band of nomands
wandering through the desert
on the way to nationhood
when Amalek suddenly at-
tacked from behind. Why?
Because of their religious
beliefs? Hardly, for as our text
points out, they had not yet
learned to fear or revere God.
Was it because of their
distinctive rituals and prac-
tices? This attack took place
before the Israelites received

Vayikra
Shabbat Zachor:
Leviticus 1:1-5:26,
Deuteronomy
25:17-19,
Samuel I 15:1-34

the Torah at Sinai. The Jews
had not yet entered into a
covenant with God.
Why then did Amalek at-
tack? What provoked this bar-
baric and cowardly assault
against a downtrodden band
of former slaves? The Torah
gives no explanation, for
there is no explanation, no ra-
tional or sensible explanation
of anti-Semitism.
And this is precisely the
meaning of the mitzvah and
the significance of Shabbat
Zachor. "Remember what
Amalek did unto you."
Remember what Amalek did
when Israel was not even a
people, before it had hardly
begun its national existence.
Israel had no distinctive
religious character; there was
no Jewishness to speak of,
and yet it was attacked and
assaulted.
"Lo tishkach" — this Sab-
bath teaches us — "do not
forget" that renouncing or
deaccentuating our
Jewishness will not win us
the love or the respect of the
anti-Semite. "Do not forget"
that when you were at your
lowest ebb spiritually, when
you were like all the other na-
tions, even then you were
shown no brotherly love.
"Blot out the remembrance
of Amalek" is the lesson of
this Shabbat. Blot out any at-
tempt at assimilation. Blot
out any memory of the time
when you were like the
others. Remember your foes
were still your foes. The anti-
Semite was still the
anti-Semite.
The fear of anti-Semitism
has hounded our people from
the dawn of our national ex-
istence. Our history has pro-
ven that there is no cure for
this terrible hatred that grips