This week is “Shabbat Zachor,” the “Shabbat of Remembering”.   Since it is just before Purim and on Purim we were threatened by Haman who was a direct descendant of Amalek, we fulfill the biblical commandment this Shabbat to remember what Amalek did to us. We do this by reading a portion from Divarim about Amalek at the end of the regular Torah reading.

Why are we commanded to remember that Amalek attacked us in the desert on our way from Egypt to Mount Saini?   We were attacked by many nations on our trek through the desert, persecuted by Pharaoh and threatened by Lavan. Why is Amalek singled out for remembering each year?

Rabbi Shalom Brezovsky, the Slonimer Rebbe, in his commentary on the Torah entitled Netivot Shalom, has a very interesting approach.  He writes that Amalek did not just attack the Jewish people for no reason, but attacked them between Egypt and Saini in order to stop them from receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai.   The attack by Amalek is seen by our commentators not only as a physical attack but a spiritual one.   It occured in a place called Rifidim and Rashi comments that the word Rifidim is an acronym for “Rafu yidehem min HaTorah”, “their hands were disconnected (lit. weakened) from the Torah.”  Amalek, writes the Slonomer, comes to sever us spiritually from God, to weaken our own personal ability to feel holy, to repent, to do good, by making us feel that we are not spiritually worthy, that there is no hope for us.

If someone sins they can repent, in fact Rabbi Nachman of Breslov sees the motivation to repentance as a hidden silver lining of sin.  But when we feel spiritually hopeless, that we are not good enough or holy enough to change our ways, then we really are stuck.  This is Amalek’s aim, to completely block us in this manner from reaching Mount Sinai.  Therefore the commandment is to remember what Amalek did to us.   In this way we can stand outside of our current state and remember that it is Amalek which has impacted us, that we are not really unworthy or spiritually unable, it’s the influence of Amalek.  Thus, there is no commandment to remember what others like Pharaoh did to us because we do not need to, it does not have a lasting impact- but Amalek is always here.  To remember when we feel spiritually hopeless that it is Amalek’s influence and not that we really are unworthy, is the purpose of the mitzvah of remembering what Amalek did.

There is a lot of wickedness in the world.  Understanding how it functions and how it impacts us and others is the first step in battling it, whether inside of us or in our world.   As we read the news about the terrible havoc and war in the Ukraine let us keep them in our prayers and give a bit extra tzedakah to help our world find a better path, as the Slonomer rebbes book is entitled, “Nitivot Shalom”, a “Path of Peace”.