“Remember and Don’t Forget”

By Hazzan Jacob Sandler.

The very end of this week’s parasha, Ki Teitzei, calls on us to remember – and never forget – what Amalek did to us in the desert when we were leaving Egypt. At Beth El, we have a Torah which was rescued from the Holocaust displayed in a glass case outside the sanctuary. This scroll is rolled to this very passage. In addition to reading it at the end of this week’s parasha we read it every year on the Shabbat preceding Purim – Shabbat Zachor. 

You may wonder why out of the entire Torah, do we read this passage twice? Or perhaps it’s curious that out of all the passages we might have used in displaying our rescued scroll, we highlight this passage.

It reads, “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way, when you went out of Egypt, how he happened upon you on the way and cut off all the stragglers at your rear, when you were faint and weary, and he did not fear God. Therefore, when the Lord your God grants you respite from all your enemies around you in the land which the Lord, your God, gives to you as an inheritance to possess, you shall erase the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!”

What Amalek did — attacking from the back — was morally repugnant. Targeting the weakest, the elderly, the sick, the children. It is, by definition, what we call “terrorism” today. It would be different, though still unfortunate, if Amalek had picked a fair fight and chose to battle the Israelites warriors instead. But this was not their tactic. And it says, “he did not fear God” which I understand to be a euphemism for “he acted with no reverence for morality.” Amalek didn’t care that it was wrong, he only cared that it was doable.

To erase the memory of Amalek and completely wipe them out is a bold and difficult command. I recall attending a shabbat morning study session where someone referred to this as a genocidal commandment, and expressed discomfort and aversion to the idea that a whole group should be erased in such a way. This person wasn’t defending the actions of the Amalekites in the desert, but wasn’t sure about collective punishment across generations. 

One response to that discomfort is to point out that there is a timely element to the command – it is to happen “when God grants you respite from your enemies around you in the land…” Following that logic, and staying intentionally in biblical times, I direct you to the Haftarah for Shabbat Zachor, when Samuel the prophet instructs King Saul to massacre the Amalekites and put all of them, men, women, children, even the livestock to the sword. Samuel says that the time for fulfilling that command had come. Whether the modern reader would be on board is neither here nor there. This is the time to fulfill that command. What happens in this story is that King Saul only mostly does what he’s told. The best of the livestock, Saul wants to offer to God, and worse yet, he brings King Agag back alive. The story ends with Saul being stripped of the kingship, ultimately replaced by David.

Even more interesting is that Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin and is a direct blood relative of Mordechai from the Purim story. And Haman ben Ham’data haAgagi (The Agag-ite) is descendent of King Agag. The rivalry of these two men may well go back several centuries. On Purim, when the Jews were allowed to defend themselves, they did so. And in a way, Haman and his sons’ death is a moment when the command was finally fulfilled. All these years later, I don’t see any Amalekites, right? 

The scroll we saved from the holocaust is open to this passage because the Nazis took on the mantle of Amalek. They sought our destruction, and did so by the most extreme and repugnant means – they did not fear God. And we are called upon to remember the holocaust, and also never forget. Just as we are commanded to remember what Amalek did when we first left Egypt and never forget. Just like every year on Purim we remember what Haman tried and failed to do, and we never forget. It’s devastating that we still see neo-nazis in our country, and face holocaust denial among the many forms of Antisemitism that plague the world today.

Amalek was a person, then a nation and now Amalek is more like a way of being in the world. It’s any ideology which seeks destruction by any means necessary, with no regard for the sanctity of human life, or engaging in a “fair fight”. On October 7th, 2023, Hamas took a page right out of the Amalek playbook. And the other major form of antisemitism we find today is the myriad people defending Hamas’s tactics as “justified resistance” or “contextualized.” So once again, we’re called on to remember. Remember the 48 remaining hostages who need to be returned. And never forget. Never forget the many lives taken too soon on that day and the days since. In the aftermath of that day, I understand why this passage is read twice each year, and is displayed as it is. It was a long time ago, when we first left Egypt and Amalek attacked. Yet, we remember. We haven’t forgotten, and we will never forget.