Understanding Amalek in 2022

(17) Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt—

(18) 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. (19) Therefore, when your God ה' grants you safety from all your enemies around you, in the land that your God ה' is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!

ויזנב בך, “and attacked the hindmost of you.” Amalek chased after the Jewish people until he caught up with the slowest moving ones. (Ibn Ezra) [The people had not yet been organised into army groups, etc., as we learned in the Book of Numbers. Ed.]

AND SMOTE THE HINDMOST OF THEE. Va-yezanev bekhah (and smote the hindmost of thee) means, and cut off your tail (zanav), namely, all that were enfeebled in thy rear, that is, those who did not have the strength to walk. It is possible that the word necheshalim (enfeebled) is similar to nechelashim (enfeebled). Similarly keves (lamb) and kesev (lamb).

(8) Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. (9) Moses said to Joshua, “Pick some men for us, and go out and do battle with Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill, with the rod of God in my hand.” (10) Joshua did as Moses told him and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. (11) Then, whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; but whenever he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. (12) But Moses’ hands grew heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur, one on each side, supported his hands; thus his hands remained steady until the sun set. (13) And Joshua overwhelmed the people of Amalek with the sword. (14) Then the LORD said to Moses, “Inscribe this in a document as a reminder, and read it aloud to Joshua: I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven!” (15) And Moses built an altar and named it Adonai-nissi. (16) He said, “It means, ‘Hand upon the throne of the LORD!’ The LORD will be at war with Amalek throughout the ages.”

כי מחה אמחה, “for I will completely wipe out, etc.” the repetition of the verb is to tell us that both in this world and in the world to come there will eventually remain no descendants of Amalek.

The repetition of the words מחה אמחה, may be an allusion to two occasions when a major battle would be fought against Amalek, one by King Saul, the other by Mordechai. The third and last such battle will occur prior to the coming of the Messiah.

ויאמר כי יד על כס י-ה, he (Moses) said: “as soon as G–d’s hand on His throne will become firmly established throughout His universe, He will go to war against Amalek. The word יד describing an active monarchy is found in Samuel I 15,12,. I have heard in the name of Rabbi Aaron Halevi of blessed memory who questioned that the subject of the word יד here is Amalek, seeing that it says: ”I will surely wipe out.” How could Amalek have said this of himself? On the other hand in Deuteronomy 25,19, Moses commands the people in the name of the Lord that once the time has come when there is no more antisemitism, instead of letting bygones be bygones, the Jewish people are charged with seeing to it that even the mention of the name Amalek will be eradicated once and for all. Personally, I do not see a problem there at all. In our portion we discuss times when Amalek raises its hand against Israel. At such a time we need G–d to defend us against him. In Deuteronomy, it is presumed Amalek is raising his sword against the Temple, G–d’s home on earth. When the residence of the Lord is in danger, it is G–d’s people, we, who have to rise up in its defense. Jerusalem is called the throne of G–d. His throne is not secure as long as there is still any descendant of Amalek alive on this earth...

כי מחה אמחה, “for I will surely erase, etc.” The reason why Amalek’s deed evoked such a violent response from G’d was that as a result of the drowning of the Egyptians in the sea the whole of mankind including the leaders of Edom, the descendants of Esau, had suddenly been in awe of the power of Hashem. The fact that Amalek had broken this spell by attacking G’d’s people, set back the timetable of the kingdom of G’d on earth to such an extent that the people responsible for this could not be allowed to remain part of mankind’s history...

(5) It is a Positive Commandment to obliterate Amalek, as it says, “erase the memory of Amalek” (Deut. 28:19). It is a Positive Commandment to perpetually remember their wicked deeds and their ambush in order to arouse our enmity against them, as it says, “remember what Amalek did to you” (Deut. 25:17). By Tradition we have learned that “remember” means by speech, “do not forget” (Deut. 25:19) – in one’s heart; for it is forbidden to forget their enmity and hatred.

(1) To remember what Amalek did to us: That we were commanded to remember what Amalek did to Israel - that he began to harass them when they left Egypt, before any other nation or kingdom raised their hand against them; and as the matter is stated, (Numbers 24:2) "Amalek is the first of nations." Its [Aramaic] translation (Onkelos Numbers 24:2) is "The first battle of Israel was Amalek" - because everyone was afraid of them when they heard of God's great hand that He used for them in Egypt. But the Amalekites, due to their evil hearts and evil disposition, did not turn their hearts to all of this, and harassed them [by waging war]. And as a result of this, Amalek was able to remove the great fear from the hearts of the other nations. And it is like the matter that our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, analogized it (Pesikta Rabbati 12, Midrash Tanchuma on Devarim 25:17) to the analogy to a large boiling pot that no person could enter and [then] one [individual] comes and jumps and enters it. Even though he is burnt, he cools it for others. And about the memory of their matter is it stated (Deuteronomy 25:17), "Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt."

(2) It is from the roots of this commandment [that it is] to put into our hearts that anyone who distresses Israel is despised in front of God, blessed be He; and that according to his evil and his great deceptive damage, will be his downfall and bad [occurrences], as you find with Amalek: That due to [the fact that] he committed a great evil to Israel - that he began to harm them - blessed be He, commanded us to 'destroy his memory from the earth' and root it out after him, until its end (see Sefer HaMitzvot LaRambam, Mitzvot Ase 189)

(3) From the laws of the commandment is that which our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said (Megillah 18a) that the obligation of this remembrance is with the heart and with the mouth (see Sefer HaChinukh 330). As so is it in Sifrei, Parshat Bechukotai (at the beginning), "'Remember what Amalek did' - could it be with the heart? When it says 'do not forget' - behold, [this refers to] the forgetting of the heart. Behold, what is [the purpose of] 'Remember?' That it should be recited in your mouth." To here is [what is written] in Sifrei. [It is] in order to not forget the thing, lest the enmity be weakened and be removed from the hearts over the length of time.

(4) We do not know an established time in the year or the day for this remembrance with the heart and the mouth, such as we are commanded to remember the exodus from Egypt every day and every night. And the reason [for the latter] is that that remembrance is a fundamental principle of religion, and as we have spoken about this in detail in many other places in this book. But the reason for remembering what Amalek did, is only that the hatred in our hearts not be forgotten. And for this, it is enough to remember the matter once a year, or in two years, or in three years. And behold, in all the places of Israel, they read the Book of the Torah over a year, or two or three - at the very least. And behold, they fulfill this commandment with that. And perhaps we should say that the custom of Israel to read Parashat Zachor on a specific Shabbat each and every year is [as a law from the] Torah. And it is due to this commandment that they fixed it like that. And it is always the Shabbat before Purim. And the law should be to read it on Purim day, because it is from the matter of the day, since Haman the wicked was from the seed [of Amalek]; but in order to make known that before the miracle [of Purim], we were commanded in this remembrance, they fixed the [reading] before Purim. However they made it adjacent to Purim, in the way that they, may their memory be blessed, say (Berakhot 21b) in [certain] places, "they placed the matter adjacent to it."

(5) This commandment is practiced in every place and at all times by males, because it is upon them to wage war to avenge the enemies - and not upon women. And one who transgresses this and did not remember and recite with his mouth what Amalek did to Israel ever has violated this positive commandment, and also violated the negative commandment that comes upon this - which is "do not forget," as we will write in the negative commandments (Sefer HaChinukh 604) with God's help.