​Parshiot Tetzaveh-Zachor 5786, 2026: "Amalek?"

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Rabbi David Etengoff
 
Amalek?
 
ה' יעזור וירחם על אחינו כל בני ישראל בארץ ישראל ובכל חלקי הארץ
 
Chamishah Chumshei Torah contain two passages that discuss Amalek and his actions:
Amalek arrived and attacked Israel there in Rephidim… God said to Moshe, “Write this as a reminder in the Book and repeat it carefully to Yehoshua. I will totally obliterate the memory of Amalek from under the heavens.” Moshe built an altar, and he named it God-is-my-Banner. He said, “The Hand is on God's Throne. God shall be at war with Amalek for all generations.” (Sefer Shemot 17:8, 14-16)
 
Remember what Amalek did to you on your way out of Egypt. When they encountered you on the way, and you were tired and exhausted, they cut off those lagging to your rear, and they did not fear God. Therefore, when God gives you peace from all the enemies around you in the land that God your Lord is giving you to occupy as a heritage, you must obliterate the memory of Amalek from under the heavens. You must not forget. (Sefer Devarim 25:17-19, translations, The Living Torah, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan zatzal)
 
These passages contain the following crucial ideas:

1. Sefer Shemot teaches us that Amalek arrived and attacked our ancestors in Rephidim. The Hebrew word “vayavo” is used for “arrived” as found in our translation. Vayavo connotes premeditation, a planned journey with a particular end in mind, that is, Amalek traveled to Rephidim with the avowed purpose of attacking our nation. In contrast, the passage from Sefer Devarim contains the words: “When they encountered you (asher karecha) on the way,” indicating to Rashi (1040-1105) that this was a mere chance encounter instead of a planned attack.

 

1. Amalek’s attack, and the subsequent battle that ensued, must never be forgotten, and must ever be writ large in the Jewish collective consciousness. Consequently, Moshe was commanded to “Write this as a reminder in the Book and repeat it carefully to Yehoshua.” To ensure this, we were given two mitzvot: “Remember what Amalek did to you on your way out of Egypt,” and “You must not forget.”

 

1. Amalek’s pernicious actions are deemed so heinous that “God shall be at war with Amalek for all generations.” This is a war that mandates complete and absolute destruction of Amalek on the part of God and man: “I [God] will totally obliterate the memory of Amalek from under the heavens,” and “Therefore, when God gives you peace from all the enemies around you in the land that God your Lord is giving you to occupy as a heritage, you must obliterate the memory of Amalek from under the heavens.” This verse is the source for a third mitzvah, namely, the complete annihilation of Amalek.

 
The nation of Amalek no longer exists. Its genetic individuality was lost long ago in the sands of time through mass displacement, and in the cauldron of assimilation. How, then, are we to understand the mitzvot pertaining to Amalek in our own historical moment? My rebbe and mentor, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zatzal (1903-1993), known as “the Rav” by his students and followers, answered this question by noting that, “Amalek is not a race, nor is it a people, a nationality.” If so, what is “Amalek?” For the Rav, it is a state of mind and a behavioral orientation that personifies evil incarnate:

I once heard from my father, [Rav Moshe Soloveitchik zatzal] of blessed memory, in the name of my grandfather [Rav Chaim Soloveitchik zatzal], that any people or group committed to destroy the Jewish people is to be classified as Amalek. One who writes on his banner “Come let us cut him off from being a nation; that the name of Israel be no more in remembrance” (Ps. 83:5) acquires the status of Amalek, and the commandment of “You shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek” (Deut. 25:19) is applicable to him or to them. (This and the following passage, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Days of Deliverance, Essays on Purim and Chanukah, p. 16, from the manuscript of his 1974 public lecture)
 
In truth, Amalek hates all humankind. None-the-less, his greatest vitriol is reserved for our holy nation, since our existence is perceived as antithetical to his very being:

Of course, Amalek or man-Satan hates everybody. He is the enemy of man and enjoys causing misery and injury to all people. Yet, man-Satan or Amalek is particularly preoccupied with the Jew. He hates the Jew more than anybody else. In hating the Jew, in causing suffering and pain to the Jew and inflicting harm on him, Amalek finds his greatest delight. No matter what economic-sociopolitical program man-Satan adopts—socialist, capitalist, fascist, progressive, reactionary, agnostic-secular, or religious-clerical—the hatred of the Jew is his central preoccupation.
 
Now we can understand why “God shall be at war with Amalek for all generations.” As the Haggadah poignantly states: “b’chol dor v’dor omdim aleinu l’kaloteinu” (“In each and every generation someone stands over us and attempts to destroy us.”) Amalek, in the guise of “man-Satan,” has been the ceaseless enemy of our people since the moment we left Egypt, and, alas, continues to be so.
 
Talmud Bavli, Sanhedrin 20b teaches us that three mitzvot became incumbent upon our ancestors when they entered the Land of Israel: “It has been taught: R. Yossi said: ‘Three commandments were given to Israel when they entered the land; to appoint a king; to cut off the seed of Amalek; and to build themselves the chosen house.’” (Translation, Soncino Talmud) The Rambam (1135-1204) accepts Rabbi Yossi’s formulation as p’sak halacha:
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Three commandments were commanded to the Jewish people at the time they entered the Land: To appoint a king, as it states: “You should certainly place a king over you” [Sefer Devarim 17:15], to cut off the offspring of Amalek, as it states: “Obliterate the memory of Amalek” [25:19], and to build for themselves the Beit HaBechirah, as it states: “the place where Hashem will cause His presence to dwell, search it out and go there [12:5]” (Mishneh Torah, Sefer Shoftim, Hilchot Melachim 1:1, translation my own)
 
May we be zocheh to witness the imminent arrival Mashiach Tzidkeinu, the eradication of Amalek and anti-Semitism, and the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash soon and in our days. V’chane yihi ratzon.
 
Shabbat Shalom
 
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