igleitte

Weamwormepi ,

Question of the Week:
What photographer, most famous for her pictures of rock stars
in Rolling Stone magazine, lived on a kibbutz in Israel in
1969?

•

destroy the tribe. God commanded Moses to
f there's one thing we do in Judaism, it is
record in the Torah that the war against
remember. In fact, almost all of our holi-
Amalek would continue "from generation to
days commemorate a historical event.
generation" (verses 14-16).
Although next Shabbat is not really a holi-
Such a condemnation is not recorded any-
day, we make a special effort to remember
where
else in the Torah, and tradition teach-
an episode from our history.
es us that this specific attack by Amalek was
Saturday, March 18, is designated Shabbat
carried out not for military advantage but out
Zachor, the Sabbath of Remembrance, or the
of sheer hatred.
Shabbat of Memory. On this day, we recall
As descendants of Esau, the Amalekites
what happened to us one day after our liber-
knew that the Jews, the descendants of Jacob,
ation from slavery in Egypt.
were
headed for a land of specific bound-
The incident occurred at a place called
: aries, which did not encroach upon their tern-
Refidim. The Jews had camped there and
: tory. Nonetheless, the Amalekites, in a sneak
demanded water, which Moses, under

I

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
AppleTree Editor

Remembrance

Just before celebrating Purim, we
recall meeting our first enemy
and consider his descendants.

Why God commanded

Jews never to

forget this battle:

a question of faith.

Divine command, produced from a rock.
Not long after, the Amalekites, the first
enemy they encountered after crossing the
Red Sea, attacked the Jews.
The tribe of Amalek was genealogically
related to the Jews. In Parshat Vayishlach
(Genesis 36:12), we learn that Amalek was
the son of Elifaz, the firstborn of Esau, broth-
er of Jacob.
• Although in Parshat Beshalach (Exodus
17:8-13), the Torah says that the Jews sound-
ly defeated the Amalekites, they did not

4tat.*:\

The word "yizkor" has the root
"zachor" — remember.

attack, cut down the stragglers at the rear of
the camp, tired and weak from travel.
Later in the Torah, God again commands
the Jewish people never to forget what
Amalek did to them. He gives two reasons
for this remembrance: the attack was aimed
at the weakest of the Jews, and Amalek
"did not fear God" (Parshat Ki-Tetze;
Deuteronomy 25:17-19).

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