This Shabbat is called Shabbat Zakhor (= Remember!). In the morning two Sefarim (Tora scrolls) are read. The first one for the weekly Parasha, in this case TETSAVE, and the second one for a special text from the book of Debarim 25:17, ZAKHOR,. “Remember what Amaleq did to you when you left Egypt … Amaleq attacked the weakest, at the end of the camp … and he did not fear God … do not forget it!”.
UNCONDITIONAL HATRED
When we left Egypt, Amaleq attacked us. Without provocation, without reason, without a motive. Israel did not pose a threat to Amaleq or its territory. Amaleq’s reasons for attacking the Jews were not “logical” but rather, and using a modern term: “ideological. It was not the power of the Jews or the money of the Jews that provoked Amaleq’s hatred towards the Jews. What power or money did slaves have? It was not a territorial issue either: we were in the desert, no man’s land. Amaleq’s attack was not a preemptive strike: it was not in our plans to conquer the territory of Amaleq. Amaleq’s violence against the Jews was not motivated by economic factors, territorial conflicts, revenge or prevention. Amaleq’s attack was the effect of Amaleq’s obsessive enmity towards the Jewish people. And what seems absolutely supernatural is that this pattern of behavior towards Israel has not disappeared: it continues to exist today as or more active than yesterday. I cannot stop thinking about Iran, for example, what reasons does Iran have to threaten to wipe Israel off the map? There are no disputed territories. And Iran does not share any border with Israel. Iran threatens to destroy Israel even though Israel does not pose a threat to Iran. What logical explanation exists for Iran’s obsession against Israel?
TERRORISM
But perhaps the most curious thing —and the most dangerous— of Amaleq’s attitude toward Israel is that Amaleq knew he did not have the military capacity to destroy the people of Israel. Why? Because at that time, when leaving Egypt, Israel had a huge numerical advantage over its enemies. We had an army of 600,000 men, a number that in those times (or even today) is considered unusually high. In other words. Amaleq’s attack was “suicidal”. He knew he could not defeat Israel, but Amaleq was willing to sacrifice himself in order to “harm” Israel and create panic, demoralize them, or as the Hakhamim explained: “cool them down” (אשר קרך בדרך) and prove to Israel’s future enemies that Israel is not invincible but vulnerable.
This is why, Amaleq did not fight Israel frontally, but as the Tora explains, Amaleq attacked the civilians: women, children, the elderly and the sick, who were at the end of the camp because they walked slower. And when the enemy has a suicidal goal in mind, the damage he can cause is unpredictable. Since the number one rule of the military world – the enemy with less power does not attack the enemy with more power – does not apply to him. An enemy that is guided by a suicidal ideology, believes that his own death is justified even when he only manages to inflict damage on the enemy. The terrorist acts perpetrated by Hamas or Hizbollah against Israel—random missiles, bombs, knives or attacks with cars—are attacks “Amaleq style”, directed against the civilian population, and destined to demoralize and generate pain …
RATIONALIZING AMALEQ
This enemy is impossible to dissuade and especially to “understand”. Our psychological need to “understand” Amaleq, that is, try to figure it out with logical arguments why Amaleq wants to attack or destroy Israel, makes us much more vulnerable to Amaleq. Imagine that we ignore the irrational nature of Amaleq’s hatred and we negotiate territories with Amaleq. Either we cede territories unilaterally, or we renounce our settlements so that Amaleq “has what he wants and leaves us alone”. If Amaleq’s enmity is irrational and unconditional, then, the only thing we will be achieving by ceding territories is strengthening Amaleq, and having its weapons and terrorists closer to our civilian populations. Something that we will pay with more victims of our own. The Tora, foreseeing the danger of our well-intentioned naiveté when dealing with Amaleq, tells us “Zakhor” remembers Amaleq, and it repeats its exhortation with an exceptional expression “al tishkakh”, Do not forget! .With my own words: do not forget the suicidal obsession of Amaleq and his irrationality.
PURIM and AMALEQ
Tomorrow, the Shabbat before Purim, we will read the text of Amaleq because Haman was the first descendant of Amaleq who had the power to erase all the people of Israel from the map. The Tora assures us that HaShem will never let Amaleq destroy us. But it also teaches us to understand that we CANNOT AFFORD being naive about the true nature and intentions of Amaleq. Forgetting Amaleq’s nature, can cost us our lives. Listening to the reading of Perashat ZAKHOR is a direct commandment of the Tora. This implies, among other things, that women also have an obligation to attend Synagogue and listen to this important Tora reading.
