The Shabbat that precedes Purim is called Shabbat zakhor (= Remember!). This Shabbat we take out two Sefarim, one for the weekly Parasha,  this year 2022: Vayqra, and the other Sefer for a special Maftir in Debarim 25:17, zakhor. “Remember… what Amaleq did to you when you left Egypt … Amaleq attacked the defenseless … and did not fear God … do not forget !!!”.

 

When we left Egypt, escaping a 140 years period of slavery, Amaleq attacked us. It was an unprovoked attack, without reason or motive. Israel was not a threat to Amaleq’s possessions or territory.  The reasons for Amaleq to attack the Jews were not “logical” but rather, using a modern term “ideological”. Moreover, we were superior in number to Amaleq. But Amaleq still –irrationally—attacked us.  To be more effective and cause maximum damage, Amaleq attacked the weak, the infirm, the old.

 

There was nothing specific about the Jews that triggered Amaleq’s hatred.  It was not the power of the Jews, or the money of the Jews. The Jews had just escaped from a lengthy captivity. What power or money would slaves have?  It was not a territorial issue either: we were in the desert, not even in the Promised Land. Amaleq territory was not in our plans!

What characterizes Amaleq is a radical irrational hatred for Jews. 

 

I think the best way to identify Amaleq  (and anti-Semitism in general) is that Amaleq hates Jews “unconditionally”. Is not because of  what we Jews “have” or what we Jews “do” but because of what we Jews “are”: the people of God.  It is an existential hatred. What the Jew has or does is something Amaleq might use as an excuse to justify his hatred. To  disguise hatred as a politically correct fight against this who wish to dominate the world, etc.  

 

Amaleq and his “ideological” descendants (known as ”zekher Amaleq”) can be clearly identified by the following characteristics:

 

1. UNCONDITIONAL HATRED

Amaleq’s hatred towards Jews is not motivated by territorial disputes, revenge or by feeling threatened. It is an obsessive hatred toward the Jewish people . Look for example at Iran. Iran threatens to wipe Israel off the map although it has no common borders with Israel. There are not disputed territories between the two countries. 

 

2. CIVILIANS

Amaleq would attack and would try to kill Jews, whether they are civilians, women, elder or children. Remember Ma’alot in 1974?  22 little children were massacred by Arafat and the PLO. The murder of the Fogel family in Itamar, including a woman, her children and a baby.  The synagogue of Har Nof in Jerusalem. And many more. In the last years, representatives of Amaleq have killed Jews in Israel and have stabbed to death Jews also outside Israel. In Paris, Milan, London, Brussels, Miami, California, Buenos Aires, New York, Pittsburg, and unfortunately there are no signs that this will stop.  

 

3. SUICIDAL

Amaleq’s hatred for Israel is suicidal. Amaleq is willing to practice martyrdom (self-immolation, suicide attacks, etc.) if as a consequence he would kill a Jew. Amaleq’s hatred towards Jews is greater than Amaleq’s love for their own lives or even the lives of their own children.

 

4. SINGLE OBSESION

Amaleq may hate other people temporarily, but his endless obsession is against Israel. Amaleq does not hate the Jews for what happens in Israel. On the contrary, Amaleq hates Israel because is a Jewish state.  Anti-Zionism is Amaleq’s way to disguise its anti-Semitism.

 

5. EXISTENTIAL HATRED

The most important and practical point to consider in our confrontation with Amaleq is that it is not possible to negotiate with Amaleq. Because Amaleq will never be satisfied with land, money, or even with us changing our religion. Think of the Shoa. The Nazis killed also those Jews who were willing to renounced their religion. Amaleq wants the Jewish People to disappear, period. Israeli politicians and Jews around the world are divided precisely on this point: Everyone Jew wishes to live in peace. But some believe that peace with our enemies can be achieved through negotiations. Others believe that, like Amaleq, our enemies (Iran, Palestinians, Hizbollah, BDS, etc.)  will NEVER stop attacking us, even if Jews or Israel concede their demands.  The greatest internal conflict of the modern Israeli politics has to do with identifying or not identifying our modern enemies with the Amaleq the Tora warned us about.

 

6. SELF HATRED

For many Jews, especially for those who are unfamiliar with or unwilling to accept the Biblical concept of Amaleq, it is extremely difficult to recognize and acknowledge the true nature of Amaleq. And since the behavior of Amaleq is beyond rationality, intelligent and educated but extremely naive Jews, believe that something “rational” must be triggering Amaleq’s hatred toward us. And instead of accepting the irrational nature of Amaleq’s hatred, they blame it on ourselves!. They assume, for example, that terrorist attacks or Amaleq killing of Jewish civilians, or the BDS movement that aims to delegitimize Israel  is the consequences of a new settlement. Or that hatred to Jews has to do with some Jews being wealthy or powerful. When a Jews accepts Amaleq’s narrative he or she might end up hating their own people instead of holding Amaleq accountable.  

 

7. DENIAL

Foreseeing the danger of the well-meaning but naive Jew, the Tora warned us not only to “zakhor” (remember) Amaleq. In the same text, with an exceptional tautology, the Tora exhorts us to not forget Amaleq’s suicidal obsession and irrationality (“Lo Tishkakh”).

 

Our Hakhamim prescribed  to publicly read the text where the Tora mentions Amaleq the Shabbat before Purim. Why? Because Haman was the first descendant of Amaleq who was about to succeed in erasing the entire people of Israel off the map.

 

The Tora assures us that HaShem will not let Amaleq destroy us. But it exhorts us not to be naive about the true nature and intentions of Amaleq.  Forgetting, can be tremendously costly for us.