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RABBI MORTON F. YOLKUT SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
"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 . . . Therefore,
you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under
the heavens; you shall not forget." (Deut. 25:17-19)
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AD394
t is traditional that on the
Shabbat before Purim, an ad-
ditional portion of the Torah
is read in the synagogue. In
this portion the Torah asks us to
remember (zachor) the vile ac-
tions of Amalek and its attempt
to destroy Israel in its infancy.
Furthermore, we are command-
ed to "blot out the remembrance
of Amalek" for all times.
Why did our tradition select
this particular portion to be read
just prior to Purim? Haman, the
villain of the Purim story, was
indeed a descendant of the
Amalekites. But was Amalek the
most horrible of all enemies of the
Jewish people? Has nothing
worse befallen us during the long
course of Jewish history?
And the commandment "to
blot out the remembrance of
Amalek" is also difficult to un-
derstand. Indeed, many are dis-
turbed at the thought that the
Torah, which teaches us love and
mercy, kindness and forgiveness,
could also command us to destroy
and avenge for all eternity. How
can we reconcile love of man with
vengeance and destruction?
To understand this enigmatic
commandment we must first un-
derstand who Amalek was and
what he represented in Jewish
ideology. Amalek was the nation
that traveled hundreds of miles
from its own borders to launch an
unprovoked, vicious and cowardly
attack against the Jewish people.
Amalek was never in danger
from an Israelite attack. It was
not even situated in the line of
march which Israel was taking
to reach the Promised Land. Nev-
ertheless, it launched this cruel
and abortive attack! Why? Sim-
ply because Amalek wanted to
prove to the world that Israel and
its God, that liberty and human
dignity were inconsequential;
they could be destroyed.
It was thus a clash of two dis-
tinct philosophers of life. Israel
represented the forces of freedom
and decency, of dedication to di-
vine ideals and observance of di-
vine commandments. Amalek
represented evil and brutality,
brute force and slavery. It per-
sonified the diabolical principle
that might makes right, that
there is no divine ethic and that
no matter how evil, anything
goes, if you can get away with it
and it suits your purpose. Amalek
was pure and unadulterated evil
personified in a nation.
And this is why the Torah asks
us to wage an eternal battle
against Amalek and its ideology.
You cannot appease the forces of
evil. You cannot turn the other
cheek. Evil must be fought. And
it is an eternal struggle because
evil appears in many guises and
in every period of time.
From the days of Haman to
the era of Hitler, from Amalekites
of yesteryear to the Haman ter-
rorists of today, this ubiquitous
struggle has confronted our peo-
ple. Judaism teaches us to be
eternally vigilant and to fight
against the forces of evil in this
world. "You shall bot out the
memory of Amalek," is addressed
to all of us. Everyone must be in-
volved. Loving one's neighbor
does not involve tolerating evil or
accepting genocide. Evil must be
fought until it is destroyed. Un-
fortunately, them is no other way.
The words of the philosopher
Edmund Burke have a special ur-
gency for our time. "All that is
necessary for evil to triumph," he
Shabbat Zachor:
Leviticus 1:1-5:26
Deuteronomy
25:17-19
I Samuel 15:2-34.
wrote, "is for good men to do noth-
ing." Indeed, there are select mo-
ments in history that we are
called upon as Jews and as mem-
bers of the human fraternity, to
confront the forces of evil and
darkness in this world. For a long
time, until the establishment of
Israel in 1948, Jews by and large
shied away from such confronta-
tions. The results were devastat-
ing and demoralizing.
Today, however, we will not
permit history to repeat itself.
And when our tradition and our
humanity tell us that we must
make our stand then we shall do
so in spite of the moralistic criti-
cism and "double standards" of
our antagonists. And then, like
Moses, our teacher, we shall con-
front the modern version of the
ancient Amalekites and help
transform this world into one
worthy of God's redemption. L