Dear TBZ Community,
How do we face Shabbat Zachor (Sabbath of Remembrance) this evening and tomorrow? How do we face a joyful Purim next week? This year, it feels particularly challenging. It has often felt difficult in the past, but each year seems to become harder—too real, too dangerous.
Shabbat Zachor is named after the special maftir (concluding section of the Torah reading) from the book of Deuteronomy 25:17-19, which begins with the word zachor (remember):
זָכוֹר אֵת אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה לְךָ עֲמָלֵק בַּדֶּרֶךְ בְּצֵאתְכֶם מִמִּצְרָיִם
Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt—
אֲשֶׁר קָרְךָ בַּדֶּרֶךְ וַיְזַנֵּב בְּךָ כָּל־הַנֶּחֱשָׁלִים אַחֲרֶיךָ וְאַתָּה עָיֵף וְיָגֵעַ וְלֹא יָרֵא אֱלֹהִים
how, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear.
וְהָיָה בְּהָנִיחַ יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לְךָ מִכָּל־אֹיְבֶיךָ מִסָּבִיב בָּאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר יְהֹוָה־אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לְךָ נַחֲלָה לְרִשְׁתָּהּ תִּמְחֶה אֶת־זֵכֶר עֲמָלֵק מִתַּחַת הַשָּׁמָיִם לֹא תִּשְׁכָּח
Therefore, when your God Adonai grants you safety from all your enemies around you, in the land that your God Adonai is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!
We read: “remember what Amalek did,” “blot out the memory of Amalek,” and “don’t forget!”
This reading is traditionally connected to the holiday of Purim. The connection comes from Haman’s name in the Book of Esther: ha-Agagi, the Agagite, and Agag, the king of Amalek. Other than Amalek being called ha-Agagi, we don’t know much more about the continuity of Amalek. But the rabbis taught us that Amalek symbolizes all the enemies of the Jewish people throughout history.
Along with the call to blot out the memory of Amalek in the book of Deuteronomy, the tradition is to read the Haftarah from Samuel 1, Chapter 15:2-34. This recounts Saul waging a furious war against Amalek, following God’s commandment to attack the people of Amalek. And then, a few days later, when we celebrate Purim joyfully, we will read chapter 9 of the Megillat Esther, the scroll of Esther, where we will learn about the vengeful killing after Haman tried to annihilate the Jewish people, resulting in the loss of more than seventy thousand lives.
So how do we do this? What do these readings do to us? What have they done to us over generations? How have they shaped who we have become as a people?
These questions are hard. As we know, these depictions of what God wants from us—perhaps relevant (or perhaps not) to a different time—have become too real.
The danger: The text is followed literally by those who believe that God is commanding us to wipe other humans off the earth. To be vengeful. To retaliate.
These questions are not new. We are not the first to ask how best to read these texts. For generations, our tradition has found ways to understand the many layers of these texts.
In the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Gittin 57b, there is a passage that imagines some of the worst enemies of the people of Israel changing their ways. In that list, we find Amalek:
מִבְּנֵי בָנָיו שֶׁל הָמָן לִמְּדוּ תּוֹרָה בִּבְנֵי בְרַק
Some of Haman’s descendants studied Torah in Bnei Brak
This text suggests that the eradication of Amalek happens when its descendants turn away from their actions and become students of Torah.
This is a pretty audacious statement.
In the tractate of Sanhedrin 99b, we learn that Amalek is a descendant of Timna. And who was Timna? Timna, mentioned in the Torah, is the subject of rabbinic inquiry. The rabbis ask why she is mentioned and explain that she was a descendant of Esau, Jacob’s brother. But the rabbis tell us that Timna wanted to convert; she wanted to leave the path of her father (whom the rabbis assume was sinful):
בָּעֲיָא לְאִיגַּיּוֹרֵי בָּאתָה אֵצֶל אַבְרָהָם יִצְחָק וְיַעֲקֹב וְלֹא קִבְּלוּהָ הָלְכָה וְהָיְתָה פִילֶגֶשׁ לֶאֱלִיפַז בֶּן עֵשָׂו אָמְרָה מוּטָב תְּהֵא שִׁפְחָה לְאוּמָּה זוֹ וְלֹא תְּהֵא גְּבִירָה לְאוּמָּה אַחֶרֶת נְפַק מִינַּהּ עֲמָלֵק דְּצַעֲרִינְהוּ לְיִשְׂרָאֵל מַאי טַעְמָא דְּלָא אִיבְּעִי לְהוּ לְרַחוֹקַהּ
Timna sought to convert. She came before Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they did not accept her. She went and became a concubine of Eliphaz, son of Esau…Ultimately, Amalek emerged from her. What is the reason? They should not have rejected her.
This is another audacious statement, suggesting that Amalek was the result of the patriarchs refusing Timna’s desire to convert.
In Hasidic interpretations, we learn that Amalek resides within every human. It is not an external force, but the evil that exists inside each of us.
Hasidic Master Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev (18th C., Ukraine) explains:
“Rather, every person in Israel needs to erase the evil part that is concealed in one’s heart, known by the name Amalek. This is because whenever the seed of Amalek is found in the world, it is found in the human being, for the human is a small world. Therefore, there is a reality to ‘Amalek,’ the force of evil inside every human being, which arises each time to make a person sin. It is regarding this that the remembrance comes in the Torah.”
Commentaries throughout the centuries have addressed the question and the meaning of blotting out Amalek’s memory. Perhaps we have failed as a people to give these voices the central stage in shaping who we have become. But we cannot give up. If we take the instruction about eradicating Amalek literally, then in a way, we end up becoming Amalek ourselves.
There is an obligation to “hear” the verses of Zachor read from the Torah out loud, in person—an obligation we do not have for other Torah readings. During the first year of the Covid pandemic, the question of how to fulfill this obligation was asked of Rav Ovadia Yosef’s students in their daily halachic (Jewish law) ruling, in memory of their teacher. Their answer was that those who could not hear the Torah reading in person because of Covid should follow the ruling of an annus (a person who has no other choice): The obligation to listen to Zachor is transferred to the Shabbat of Parshat Ki Teitzei, when we read these verses as part of the regular Torah reading, during the month of Elul.
This changes the context of reading these verses. When the reading occurs against the backdrop of Elul (the last month of the year before the High Holidays) rather than Purim, something interesting happens. Instead of reading it as a call for vengeance and punishment, we are invited to read these verses in the context of t’shuva (repentance) and introspection.
Purim is a complicated holiday—so complicated that we often prefer not to deal with the hard issues it contains. Perhaps that is why we put so much emphasis on costumes and fun! On Purim we read about oppressed people fighting for freedom and celebrating redemption; we celebrate the fact that we were saved from evil, from the enemy. We celebrate victory, and, in doing so, we celebrate horrible and devastating violence. (I encourage you to learn about the Chapter 9 Project from The Shalom Center, which invites us to envision new endings to the Purim story. We will have this available on Thursday at our Megillah reading).
These are hard times. Hard times in our country, in Israel and Palestine, in Ukraine, in the world… Hard times in so many places, where it seems that extremist views, perhaps shaped by literal readings of some of these complicated texts, are making us lose trust that humans can do better. Hard times that have me wondering if perhaps we, as a species, are all becoming Amalek.
These are hard times to hold onto during the joy of Adar (this month) and the joy of Purim.
Still, we prepare for this joyful day, while also examining our pain, our suffering, the pain of others, the suffering of others; remembering and recommitting ourselves to not forget, and to believe in and create change. We both hold the victories of our people and recognize the violence and suffering that we are responsible for. And we do not allow ourselves to become Amalek.
May this Shabbat bring us peace, strength, and clarity. May we find the courage to forgive, heal, and move forward together, knowing that we do not walk this journey alone.
May God grant blessings and comfort to all of us and our loved ones. May we discover strength, courage, and patience, and open our hearts generously. May those who are ill find healing.
May all hostages soon return to their families and friends; may peace prevail, and may our leaders prioritize life. May those working for peace be granted the strength and courage to continue their sacred work, and may we soon witness peace and dignity for all.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rav Claudia