“Remember what Amalek did to you on the way, when you came forth out of Egypt: How he met you by the way, and struck at your rear, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God.”
We must ask an important question here: why should we remember this particular part of the Torah concerning the deeds of Amalek? Shouldn’t we remember the whole Torah anyway? Can’t we just say the same phrase “remember this” about every part of the Holy Book?
To try to answer these questions, first let’s read the following verse which represents a Mitzvah (commandment):
“Therefore it shall be, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around, in the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance to possess, that you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heaven; you shall not forget it”.
The word “therefore” points to the link between two verses: to remember and to blot out the name of Amalek. Certainly, this last verse provides an explanation to the necessity of having to remember about the deeds of Amalek. But still, why we were not commanded, for example, to remember God’s explanation to the necessity of the Mitzvah of Yibum? Or to remember why we were commanded not to consume any blood of the living animal, etc.? Ramban points out that this remembrance is to be maintained until we blot out the name of Amalek from under the sky.
Now that we understand the “exclusiveness” of the commandment “to remember the deeds of Amalek”, we will analyze the commandment regarding Amalek at a deeper level.
As everybody admits today there is no way to clearly identify the lineage of any nation (except Jews) and therefore to be able identify descendants of Amalek. If so, could it be that the Almighty was “mistaken” in “not realizing” that it will not be possible to trace the lineage and, as result, to fulfill the mitzvah regarding Amalek? As a side effect, we are pointing out a “lack of intelligence” of the Universal Intelligence which created this world… in fact, how could God provide a Mitzvah which cannot be fulfilled?
One approach was provided in the Talmud, referred to by Chafetz Chaim in his book “The Concise Book of Mitzvoth” positive commandments, commandment 77, saying: “we do not know who are the people of Amalek until Elijah the prophet will come and inform us who they are, and then we will wipe out all remembrance of him from under the heaven.”
This opinion creates much more confusion.
- Why do we need to specifically remember about Amalek if we “cannot” fulfill it now anyway? Why should we remember who Amelik is if Elijah, when he comes, can just remind us about the deeds of Amalek when he points out at who they are? With such an explanation we don’t have to do anything about Amalek anyway, as we supposedly can’t find this nation until then…
- Still, such an opinion does not resolve the question of why remember what Amalek did to us and not keep this importance in default as we have to remember EVERYTHING what Torah teaches us? Again, if we don’t have to do anything about it until the coming of Elijah anyway…
If we were sincere in understanding the Divine Law, then there is only one truthful explanation of the mitzvah of remembering the deeds of Amalek.
The Almighty intended all the Laws for every Jew in every generation to develop his mind and finally his deeds. It is the actions of every Jew in every generation which must be the outcome of following God’s Ways–Derech Hashem.
No mitzvah was ever given to be maintained for the mere purpose of directing our actions in the remote future when a new historical epoch begins. As Rambam tells us (in the Sefer Ha’Mitzvot), this law applies to ALL generations. If so, then truly we have to fight Amalek in every generation as Rambam said, the same applies in our times (in ANY times). If so, then how can we identify Amalekites?
The answer to this question is the exact reason for giving us the mitzvah to remember what Amalek did to us!
If we remember what he did to us, if we remember WHY we have to fight and annihilate Amalek, then we KNOW WHO HE IS TODAY!
Again, from Deuteronomy 25:17:
“Remember what Amalek did to you by the way, when you came forth out of Egypt. How he met you by the way, and struck at your rear, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God.”
Remembering the deeds of Amalek is the tool to identify him amongst modern nations. And we all know from the daily news that it is easy to apply this law. Looking on this matter from another prospective, we can also say that such an approach also removes confusion related to “why should we differentiate Amalek from all other nations which did exactly the same in any other time in history?” Today as well, when the Divine process of the ingathering of exiles started and other nations “took over” the duty of attacking Israel … such differentiation is implied by the mainstream Rabbinical approach. The answer is that we DON’T have to differentiate Amalek from other nations who attack Israel. They are all Amalekites by matching the description of his deeds.
In desire to escape from this “uncomfortable” mitzvah, some Rabbis say that attacking Israel at the time of the exodus when Israel was led by an obvious presence of the God must be differentiated from any other hostilities against Israel in other times–like today. Such an approach, too, does not stand against the basics of Judaism:
- Despite the fact that God’s presence in the world today is hidden, a Jew always realizes the constant presence of the Almighty.
- According to all the prophesies, God’s special relations with Israel as His chosen people is the same today as ever and will never cease. It is important to notice here that in today’s world this fact is well known from the Bible to all the nations, including the enemies of Israel.
- No one can state that the historical phase in these days of the ingathering of exiles is a kind of “lower level” than the exodus from Egypt. Such a claim would be a personal idea not based on scriptures, nor supported by the understanding of the historical process of redemption.
There is a reason, though, that mainstream Judaism accepted the theory of the absence of tools to identify Amalek and therefore “released” us from performing the Divine Mitzvah of physically fighting Amalek. This is a way of making life “easier” by refusing to fight the nation, which is so obviously matching all the characteristics of Amalek and his deeds. If we truly and sincerely “remember what Amalek did to us”, we would not be able to live with our eyes closed in order to hide the horrifying realities of modern life…
Now in our time of ingathering of exiles … Amalek is acting just as he did in the time of Exodus …
Who is he? If we sincerely remember his deeds from the Torah, we should know the answer and act in line with the Divine Commandment to annihilate such a nation. As Rambam says in Mitzvah 189:
To remember what Amalek did to us, coming forward against us for evil, to express this at all times and to stir up our souls to war against him. … Do we not see what Samuel did when it came to fulfilling this mitzvah? First remembering and then ordering that they be slain (I Samuel 15:2).
Let me remind you that this “remembrance” brought Samuel to slaughter the king of Amalek into pieces. Unfortunately, this is not being done today for the reasons stated above which are nothing but evolution of “political correctness”.
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