Vayikra - Shabbat Zachor

Baruch atah Adonay, Eloheinu Melech ha'olam, asher kidshanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu la'asok b'divrei Torah

Blessed are You, Adonoy our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who sanctified us with commandments and commanded us to be engrossed in the words of Torah.

The Sages instituted the reading of Parashat Zakhor once a year in order to fulfill the Torah commandment to remember and not forget the evil deeds of Amalek. One is viewed as having forgotten about Amalek only if a year goes by without remembering it. Therefore, we discharge our obligation by mentioning the matter once a year. We read Parashat Zakhor on the Shabbat before Purim in order to juxtapose remembering Amalek to the destruction of his descendant Haman.

(8) Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. (9) Moses said to Joshua, “Pick some troops*troops Lit. “participants whose involvement defines the depicted situation”; trad. “men.” See the Dictionary under ’ish. 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.

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

(2) “Thus said the LORD of Hosts: I am exacting the penalty for what Amalek did to Israel, for the assault he made upon them on the road, on their way up from Egypt. (3) Now go, attack Amalek, and proscribeaSee note at Josh. 6.18. all that belongs to him. Spare no one, but kill alike men and women, infants and sucklings, oxen and sheep, camels and asses!” (4) Saul mustered the troops and enrolled them at Telaim: 200,000 men on foot, and 10,000 men of Judah. (5) Then Saul advanced as far as the city of Amalek and bMeaning of Heb. uncertain.lay in wait-b in the wadi. (6) Saul said to the Kenites, “Come, withdraw at once from among the Amalekites, that I may not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they left Egypt.” So the Kenites withdrew from among the Amalekites. (7) Saul destroyed Amalek from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is close to Egypt, (8) and he captured King Agag of Amalek alive. He proscribed all the people, putting them to the sword; (9) but Saul and the troops spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the second-born,cTargum and Syriac read “fatlings.” the lambs, and all else that was of value. They would not proscribe them; they proscribed only bMeaning of Heb. uncertain.what was cheap and worthless.-b (10) The word of the LORD then came to Samuel: (11) “I regret that I made Saul king, for he has turned away from Me and has not carried out My commands.” Samuel was distressed and he entreated the LORD all night long. (12) Early in the morning Samuel went to meet Saul. Samuel was told, “Saul went to Carmel, where he erected a monument for himself; then he left and went on down to Gilgal.” (13) When Samuel came to Saul, Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of the LORD! I have fulfilled the LORD’s command.” (14) “Then what,” demanded Samuel, “is this bleating of sheep in my ears, and the lowing of oxen that I hear?” (15) Saul answered, “They were brought from the Amalekites, for the troops spared the choicest of the sheep and oxen for sacrificing to the LORD your God. And we proscribed the rest.” (16) Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night!” “Speak,” he replied. (17) And Samuel said, “You may look small to yourself, but you are the head of the tribes of Israel. The LORD anointed you king over Israel, (18) and the LORD sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and proscribe the sinful Amalekites; make war on them until you have exterminated them.’ (19) Why did you disobey the LORD and swoop down on the spoil dLit. “and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord.”in defiance of the LORD’s will?”-d (20) Saul said to Samuel, “But I did obey the LORD! I performed the mission on which the LORD sent me: I captured King Agag of Amalek, and I proscribed Amalek, (21) and the troops took from the spoil some sheep and oxen—the best of what had been proscribed—to sacrifice to the LORD your God at Gilgal.”

According to the plain meaning of the text the verse has G’d saying as an assurance to any future King of Israel that he is to fight a war on G’d’s behalf against Amalek. This war would be distinguished by the fact that any loot collected in such a war was out of bounds to any Israelite and would be exclusively G’d’s property. This is why Saul, King of Israel, was punished for allowing the people to retain part of the loot from his campaign against Amalek (compare Samuel I 16, 14-27). This stain on the character of the Israelites (Saul and descendants) continued until the time of Mordechai when the Jews took revenge on their enemies without touching any part of the loot (Esther 9,16). Saul was punished measure for measure. Seeing that the Torah had made the wholeness of G’d’s throne dependent on the war against Amalek being waged by the Israelites, G’d deprived Saul of his own kingdom for failing to heed His instructions to the letter. He did not leave much of a name behind, both he and Yonathan his eldest being slain in battle. Mordechai had appreciated this lesson of history and this is why he exhorted all the Jews that on the day they would confront their enemies and defend their lives they were not to touch any of the possessions of the people against whom they would fight. Haman was a descendant of Amalek. The Torah had warned to “wipe out the memory of Amalek“ (Deut. 25,19), i.e. not to retain anything which ever belonged to that people.
We find that also concerning the battle against Amalek in the future the prophet Micah 4,13 warns: “and you will crush many peoples; you will devote their riches to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.”

Timna sought to convert. She came before Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they did not accept her. She went and became a concubine of Eliphaz, son of Esau, and said, referring to herself: It is preferable that she will be a maidservant for this nation, and she will not be a noblewoman for another nation. Ultimately, Amalek, son of Eliphaz, emerged from her, and that tribe afflicted the Jewish people. What is the reason that the Jewish people were punished by suffering at the hand of Amalek? It is due to the fact that they should not have rejected her when she sought to convert. Therefore, the verse is significant.

(1) Some time afterward, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite; he advanced him and seated him higher than any of his fellow officials.

Now it is true that in these times the extermination of an entire nation, men and women, nursling and suckling, is an act of cruelty to make the ears of all hearers ring — in spite of which, even in these days if there would arise a prophet whom all men believed to be a messenger of god and that prophet would command the people of a certain nation to rise up against the people of another city notorious for their wicked deeds and destroy them, women and children, there is no question in my mind that their hearts would not become corrupt because of this act that they performed at the behest of the prophet, but from that day on they would greatly fear that god and take great care not to rouse his wrath against them. How much more so in those days, when the destruction of peoples was a commonplace in wars, and they would lay open pregnant women and crush their infants upon a rock, the command to cut off the Canaanites and Amalek would not sound as unthinkable as it does in our days. Do we not find that when Saul and the people were "compassionate" in the war with Amalek, to whom were they compassionate? To the old people, or to the women, or to the pregnant women, or to the sucklings? Not so. They were "compassionate" only to Agag (the king) himself and to the choicest of the flock and the herd. Is this, in truth, compassion? They let the king live only to gain glory thereby and they kept the choicest of the herd and the flock alive only so that they could eat their flesh. And it was for this reason that the L-rd was wroth with Saul. For He knew that it was not out of compassion that he defied His word, but only to indulge himself and his people and for the glory of his name.

Remember what etc you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear: he did not fear God. (Deut. 25:17-18) It seems, that it is not only for this that the seed of Israel is being commanded regarding the erasing of Amalek, which is from the seed of Esav. Rather, every person in Israel needs to erase the evil part that is concealed in one's heart, that is known by the name Amalek. This is because whenever the seed of Amalek is found in the world it is found in the human being, since the human is a small world, and therefore there is a reality to "Amalek", to the force of evil inside every human being, which arises every time to make a human being sin, and is regarding this that the remembrance comes in the Torah. And behold, the strength of the seed of Israel is only found in the mouth, since "the voice, is the voice of Yaakov", [found] in the Torah [study] and in prayer, when a person has this force always burning within towards the Holy One of Blessing, then no evil can control him. But, when a person allows this force to rest then immediately [s/he is under the verse] "and they left Refidim" meaning "their hands became weak [rafah]" and instantly "and Amalek came", instantly evil takes over. But when a person seizes in any instance the character trait of "awe", meaning, one is in awe of the Holy One of Blessing and will not transgress God's commandments, in any instance he won't come to sin. And this is why "you were famished and weary" is written, that you did not have inside you the force of the seed of Israel, that their hands were weakened and did not serve God. "And did not fear God" - and from this you need to remember strongly, so that the force of Amalek will not make you stumble. And this is why it is written "And it was, when Moses raised his hand" (Exodus 17:11) this means the force that is known by the name "hand" - when a person raises that force, then "and Israel prevailed." But when he allowed that force to rest, then - God forbid - "and [the other side] prevailed, etc.

The law of Amalek is fixed in the verse, "you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from beneath the sky; do not forget," and in other verses. The Torah isolated this commandment to Amalek, so it is not within our power to include another nation in [this] commandment, even though they have done more evil than it. It is true that I have seen it brought down in the name of the Gaon, Rabbi Chaim (Soloveitchik), may his memory be blessed, that the commandment of blotting out Amalek is not specifically about the nation of Amalek, but rather that any foreign nation that acts like Amalek has this commandment apply. However I have found neither root or branch to his words! And perhaps he gave this explanation of his about the commandment that is written in the Torah. So according to his approach, this would not be within the category of adding a commandment to the commandments of the Torah. [However] behold, the Rambam in the Sefer HaMitzvot (Positive Commandment 188), was exacting to [distinguish], "the seed," of Amalek only, from the rest of the seed of Esav, etc. And likewise was the author of the Sefer HaChinukh exacting (Commandment 558), since he wrote that [only] if one finds [someone] from "their seed," is the obligation incumbent upon him to kill him and destroy him in any place and at any time. And the Hagahot Maimoniyot (on Laws of Kings 5:5) wrote that this commandment is not practiced in our days, but rather in the days of the Messiah, after the conquest of the land, etc. Behold, you see that also from this perspective, we are not able to learn about the criminals of Germany from the commandment of the blotting out of Amalek.