Shabbat Vayikra & Zachor: Amalek
The Shabbat before Purim is always called Shabbat Zachor the Shabbat to Remember.
It specifically refers to the battle that took place when the Israelites left Egypt, hoping to avoid conflict, but the tribe of Amalek attacked them from behind, the stragglers, women, and children. Joshua led the battle to defeat them (Exodus 17:8-16) and the Torah commands Israel to destroy Amalek. Later on (Deuteronomy 25:17) the Torah adds that we should remember what happened and not forget. This is the extra part we read from the Torah this week. And let me leave aside the issue as to which version is authoritative. Was it God’s obligation, ours, or both?
There are lots of references in the Torah to remembering (fewer about forgetting)! Both generalities, such as remembering commandments to keep them, and God reciprocating by remembering the Divine commitments to Israel. One specific and the other more universal. The term Zachor is used also to remember the Shabbat day and, indeed, remember the whole of our tradition. There are two different kinds of remembering, one is positive, and the other is negative. The positive side is to be aware of something and not merely to notice it intellectually but to be involved practically.
The Torah keeps on stressing that we should remember we were slaves in Egypt but also not hate them for all the bad things they did. They also helped us survive. The Torah also commanded us not to hate the Edomites (Deut23:8). And regarding a series of laws that don’t refer specifically to Amalek but to the Canaanite tribes, we were commanded to defeat them because they represented an existential threat both spiritually and physically, but we were not commanded to hate them. And Edom might be emblematic of other opponents we might fight with but not hate.
The battle against Amalek was with a tribe living in the southern part of what is now Israel, but separate, even if occasionally allied with the Canaanites. The reason normally given for blotting out Amalek is that they attacked the Israelites when there was no threat to them. The tribes were heading to Canaan. Amalek became a symbol of those who attacked us for no good reason other than crude hatred. Over the years, this name has been applied to Middle Eastern enemies as well as periods of oppression under Rome, Christianity, and Islam. And at this moment those who call for wiping Israel off the map whether Palestinians or their supporters.
In the Book of Samuel, the Amalekites were still around and a powerful enemy hundreds of years later. It seems the Israelites either did a bad job in destroying them or simply did not take the Biblical commandment to be more than symbolic. King Saul defeated them. Samuel killed King Agag for his brutality. Haman in the Book of Esther was called an Agagite, whether genealogically or symbolically. And this is the link between Haman, Amalek, Purim, and us today.
Some claim that Hamas is the equivalent of the Canaanites because they are defending their homes. Others Amalek because of their barbarism. But neither of those is accurate because they do have cause. Besides, this does not explain why the Governments of Brazil, Ireland, South Africa, and the rest of them hate us so much with such venom.
One of the claims levied against Judaism is that we have killed our enemies in the past. That we invented genocide. As if no one else did not. But Canaanites went on living alongside the Israelites for hundreds of years. Sometimes in alliance and sometimes in opposition. The Israelites did not destroy them even if commanded to. The command might have been taken as conceptual, stressing how serious the existential threat they presented was, both as Idolators and conquerors. If we are accused of being genocidal now how come, they have grown and flourished over the years? We must be the most incompetent genocidal killers ever.
It was not until the Assyrian Emperor Sennacherib conquered and scattered all the Middle Eastern tribes, that the Rabbis said quite explicitly that Amalek could not be identified. “Since Sennacherib came up and scattered all the tribes, we can no longer identify any of them.” (Brachot 28a and Yoma 54a).
This is why the Torah says quite specifically that “The battle against needless hatred of Jews is an eternal one, in each generation, and will go on forever. But at the same time, we must remember that Amalek is just one tribe. There are plenty of others who are not infected by the virus of Jew-hatred. And at the same time, we had fifth columnists who turned their backs on their people. As the Megillah says “ Many non-Jews identified with the Jews.” Then as now.
Leviticus 1-5:26 + Deuteronomy 25:17
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen lives in New York. He was born in Manchester. His writings are concerned with religion, culture, history and current affairs – anything he finds interesting or relevant. They are designed to entertain and to stimulate. Disagreement is always welcome.
