BACK TO SCHOOL WITH
Parshat Ki Teitzei: Deuteronomy
21:10-25:19; Isaiah 54:1-54:10.
I
'm a believer in memory, and
I'm in the right tradition for it.
Remember Shabbat to sanctify
it. Remember what Amalek did to us.
Remember the day that God took us out
of the land of Egypt. Remember what
happened to our brothers and sisters in
the Shoah.
We Jews spend a goodly
part of our ritual life
actively remembering,
recovering the memories
that make us who we are.
This is a gift we give to
ourselves on Shabbat, on
Pesach, during Yizkor,
on Rosh Hashanah and
at so many other times.
The national memories
we reinforce and recreate
become a source of inspi-
ration and education to our kids and
grandkids.
So it baffles me every year when we
are charged to wipe out the memory of
Amalek, as we are charged to at the end
of Ki Teitzei this Shabbat and during
its reprise prior to Purim. It becomes
almost like a bad joke. The more we
make the effort to blot out the memory
of Amalek — and its purported descen-
dants — the more we remember them.
The more we shake our groggers on
Purim, the more attention we then give
to Haman the Amalekite.
So what do we do with the problem-
atic, Jewishly-contrary, impossible-to-
fulfill charge of wiping out our memory
of Amalek? Some people just ignore the
word, "memory" and prefer to see the
charge as wiping out Amalek itself. Wipe
out your enemies. Defeating, resisting,
changing, transforming — yes. These
are appropriate postures to take toward
our enemies. But "wiping out?" In the
aftermath of the Holocaust, when we
were almost wiped out, the notion of the
Jewish people wiping out another nation
is obscene.
So I am left with a wholly different
interpretation. Yes, blot out the memory
of Amalek. Blot out the memories pos-
sessed by the Amalekites and their
successor nations. Memories that, for
whatever pathological reasons, see us as
the source of all problems in the world,
stab us in the back, and target our weak
and innocent — and our strong.
Memories that inhibit the anti-Semites
of today and days past from seeing us
for what we really are — a people trying,
with typically mixed results, to walk in
God's ways. Their contrived false memo-
ries — of Christ-killers, blood-libeled
child-killers, deniers of other
faiths, moneylenders — are
gross distortions of our Jewish
truths.
Granted, it's not our respon-
sibility to blot out these false
memories. It's the responsibility
of the nations. Still, we can pray
for the time when these memo-
ries will be blotted out because
they have a demoralizing effect
on us.
On Purim, we laugh, make
noise and cry invisibly at the
seeming futility of trying to make the
world change, change in its attitudes
toward Jews and Israel. Respecting
and looking fairly at Israel, instead of
degrading it with erroneous historical
accounts and political postures. It's hard
to envision these changes, and it covers
the shallow joy of Purim with a veil of
sadness.
On the contrary, Rosh Hashanah
gives us hope for change by compelling
us to bring memory right back to its
origin, the creation of the world, free
of the errors and distortions that color
parochial memory. May its message
compel both us and the other nations
of the world to see ourselves all as God's
creations — nothing more and, even
more so, nothing less. Creations to be
protected, nurtured and respected, not
endangered, stifled and assailed.
This parshat Ki Teitzei, as we begin
our return to the pristine waters of cre-
ation and teshuvah, we cannot blot out
the memory of Amalek, nor, God forbid,
can we seek to wipe out Amalek and its
successors. May we see the nations of
the world in their merit, and even at the
nations' worst, stifle our dreams of their
eradication. And may we see the day
when the nations see us in a different
light, turning our reality — and their
false memories — on their heads.
❑
Mark Robbins is the rabbi at B'nai Israel
248-851-1260
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