Remembering What Amalek Did With Purim only a few days away,
Jews will this Shabbat hear a special reading of the Torah in
addition to the regular weekly portion. In a second Sefer Torah
Parshat Zachor will be read in fulfillment of the Torah command
to “remember what Amalek did to you.” Although the Torah did not
specify a date for this annual remembrance, our Talmudic Sages
ordered it to take place on the Shabbat before Purim, which
celebrates our miraculous deliverance from the Amalekite Haman.
There is more in this juxtaposition than just the relationship
of the genocidal Haman to his vicious forebears. Our ancestors
were made vulnerable by Heaven to an attack from the Amalekites
as a means of shocking them out of their almost heretical
attitude, expressed in their complaint of “Is the L-rd among us
or not?” (Shmot 17:7). Haman, too, was unleashed against our
ancestors because of mistakes they made in regard to bowing to
Nebuchadenetzer’s idol-like statue and participating in the
feast of Achashverosh. Pa