Text: Debarim 25:17-19
Remember what Amaleq did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt—how, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear. Therefore, when the Lord, your God grants you safety from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amaleq from under heaven. Do not forget.
Analysis: Shemuel the prophet defined the term “blotting out the memory of Amaleq” to mean: “Spare no one, but kill alike men and women, infants and sucklings, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys” (1 Samuel 15:3). This stands as a most important commandment. The section begins with the commandment to “remember,” and ends with the order “don’t forget.” Yet, the value of eradicating evil and its connection to Perashat “Zachor” (the opening Hebrew word of the above section) is somewhat difficult to teach. Of course, everyone agrees that we should eradicate evil. However, it is hard to understand the Torah’s commandments to kill every man, woman and infant of Amaleq. In the period of the war against terrorism that we are presently in, it is somewhat easier to understand it, but not completely. Rambam has mitigated the absoluteness of this law when it comes to practice. In addition, the Torah has limited the practical application of the law to only the nation of Amaleq. Our Rabbinic tradition has already decided that it is impossible, after the Assyrian empire’s mixing up the various nations, to identify any one nation as Amaleq. Still the commandment stands and can be applied towards evil in general. Evil must be eradicated.
Debarim is Deuteronomy.....
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