Parashath Zachor: Remember What, Exactly? Part 4

(Part 3)

As Parashath Zachor rolls around, I am reminded about how the sages saw a positive aspect of Haman’s decrees (Megilla 14a):

“The king removed his ring and gave it to Haman.” R Abba b. Kahana said: This removal of the ring was more efficacious than the forty-eight prophets and seven prophetesses who prophesied to Israel, for all these were not able to get Israel to improve their behavior, and the removal of the ring did get them to improve their behavior.

Even the quintessential Amalekite can be the impetus for true repentance.

Repentance is of course a very important commandment, and although Elul is still half a year away,  it is around Purim time that we can change a year’s decree for the better through true repentance, repentance out of joy, love, and happiness, the kind that has characterized Purim. When I think about repentance, I recall two classic books on the subjects. Maimonides’s Laws of Repentance is addressed to the individual. It discusses the centrality of personal responsibility and accountability, free will, and doctrinal beliefs, and is geared to individuals, whereas R’ Kook’s  Opus on Repentance focuses on the national responsibility to repent, a concept that derives from the focus on the individual’s behavior. He develops this new concept of national repentance for a time when the Redemption is at hand, and the Jewish people will rediscover their collective responsibilities. His book is messianic in nature, and reflects an idea encapsulated in Parashath Zachor:

Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came forth out of Egypt; how he met you by the way, and pounced upon your stragglers when you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God. It shall be, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies round about, in the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens; you shall not forget.

If you read this carefully, ideally in the original Hebrew, you will notice that this confrontation with Amalek is not described with the typical expressions of war that characterize the middle sections of the book of Deuteronomy, which typically start with the expression, ki teitzei lamilhama, “when  you go out to war.” Further, although in the book of Samuel, Saul and David did effectively try to make war with the Amalekites on the instruction of the prophets, here, in Zachor, the commandment is intellectual in nature. Zachor, remember, timheh eth zeicher, you shall blot out the remembrance,  lo tishkah, do not forget, but it does not say,  for example, “wipe out the seed of Amalek,” or something along those lines. Further, this commandment is for when “the Lord has given you rest from all your enemies round about.” If we have legitimately been granted rest from all our enemies, does that not include the Amalekites? It seems that this commandment, if to make war, is paradoxically meant for a time of unprecedented peace! Further, we have already seen that the literal facet of the commandment, to actually destroy the Amalekites, became irrelevant very early in history, even before Second Temple times! Yet, we also have a principle that the fight against Amalek is the responsibility of the nation as a whole, just like appointing a king and building the Temple.

Rather, as Hazal said, even the literal “going out to war against your enemies,” is against the evil inclination, the truest enemy, and how much more so do we see that the eternal commandment regarding Amalek, the one relevant until today, is the hyper-intellectual war, to root out the evil inclination and everything that stands in contrast to what God really wants. This war, to finally destroy the very inclination to evil, is  that final war the Jewish people will have to wage as the Redemption approaches, a war that we will only be able to wage in a time of unprecedented peace, and is the final challenge Rav Kook may be referring to when he talks about national repentance, because this it can not be undertaken by individuals. It, like any other war, must be waged by the entire nation acting as one.