Saturday, March 19, 2011

There is only one Amalek

I had a thought, while listening to the drasha this morning. The main question of the Drasha was why does it say both "remember" (זכור)Amalek, and " Not forget" (לא תשכח), aren't they the same thing? I apologize to whomever was giving the Drasha, since I don't remember his answer. However an answer did occur to me while he was speaking.

Every year around shabbat Zachor some rabbi is sure to find a new Amalek -both physical and spiritual. They can be the Palestinians, Germans,  Persians, Left winger, Zilzul, Pride, Materialism or whatever happens to be  bad guy of that week. My insight was the torah was telling us two things. The first commandment "Remember" is to remember who Amalek are so that we can kill/annihilate them. The second commandment - "Don't Forget" is a commandment to remember them specifically, for the purpose of identification - namely to make sure that we don't by mistake identify anyone else as an Amalek.

The torah command against Amalek is so harsh - that you have to be careful not to expand it. Not every bad guy/bad charecter trait is worthy of being Amalek. Don't forget who Amalek really are - because if you do you will start thinking everyone is Amalek.

No comments: