The greatest enemy of the Jewish people was the nation of Amalek. When the Jewish people left Egypt, Amalek attacked the weak and weary stragglers at the rear of the Jewish camp. They were the first nation to attack the Jewish people and they were completely undeterred by the miracles of the Plagues and the Splitting of the Sea. In doing so, they opened up the path for other nations to follow suit.
Because of this, Amalek is treated differently than all of the other nations that the Jewish people had to conquer. The Torah lists three separate Mitzvost that relate to the nation of Amalek;
The first Mitzvah is to “remember what Amalek did to you, on the way while you were leaving Egypt.” The second Mitzvah is to “destroy all remembrance of Amalek” and their descendants. The third Mitzvah, is "not to forget" what Amalek did to us.
The Sefer Hachinuch writes that the purpose and rationale of these Mitzvots is for us to know that those who attack the Jewish people, are despised by Hashem and that as a result of their evil and the great harm that they caused to us, we have to eradicate them.
The main Mitzvah is the eradication of Amalek. The purpose of the Mitzvah to remember what Amalek did to us, is in order to arouse our anger towards Amalek, so that we remain committed to our obligation to destroy them. In his Sefer Hamitzvot, the Rambam writes that we need to constantly remember what Amalek did to us, so that our hatred towards Amalek does not weaken due to the passage of time.
In addition to the positive Mitzvah to remember what Amalek did to us, there is a negative Mitzvah to not forget. Whilst this seems the same as remembering, our sages explain that “not forgetting” is a Mitzvah that we fulfill in our hearts and minds. “Remembering” is a Mitzvah that must be fulfilled with our mouths.
In order to retain our hatred of Amalek and commitment to their destruction, relying on our mental memory is not enough. We have to verbalise it with our mouths. We do this every year on Shabbos Zachor, when we publicly read the Pesukim of these Mitzvos from the Torah.
Whilst these Mitzvot only apply to the actual nation of Amalek, the commentators write that in a figurative sense, the antisemites who attack the Jewish people, are like the nation of Amalek. The Poskim of the past generation, wrote this concerning Nazi Germany.
In our times, Amalek is Hamas. Like Amalek, they attacked the unsuspecting and vulnerable members of the Jewish people; women, children and the elderly. They did so with great audacity and with unimaginable cruelty and brutality.
In the aftermath of this attack, it was clear to all, that Hamas had to be completely eradicated and destroyed, to ensure that they can never again harm the Jewish people. The entire nation was committed to this goal as a matter of absolute priority.
But for many, including our politicians and leaders, with the passage of time, the priority of destroying Hamas seems to have become weaker, as we focus on other priorities.
We have accepted cease-fires and entered negotiations, allowing Hamas to regroup and rearm. As time goes on, we are left to start to question how committed the government still is to the destruction of Hamas. Maybe this will end up G-d forbid, just like after the previous wars, where Hamas was let-off the hook and allowed to survive. The Haftorah warns us of this danger, when we allow our “compassion” or short-term memories to get the better of us.
The message of Shabbat Zachor is that we have to constantly remind ourselves what Hamas did to us. But remembering in our minds is not enough. We must speak-up publicly at every opportunity about what Hamas did on October 7, so that we never forget how evil they are and what they are capable of doing should any remnant be left. And most importantly, it is to ensure that we and our leaders never weaken one iota in our resolve to destroy Hamas, the enemy of the Jewish people and the enemy of G-d.
Rabbi Yonason Johnson is Director of the Maor Centre, Melbourne Australia