The
older I get, the more I realize how tricky memory can be. There are events in
my life which took place decades ago – some very insignificant – which I
able to recall perfectly – at least I think I do. And there are days when I
cannot remember what I ate for breakfast.
This Shabbat is known as “Shabbat Zachor/The
Shabbat of Remembering” for God commanded us to remember Amalek, the ancestor
of Haman, the villain of the Purim festival. For this purpose we read as the
Maftir portion at the close of our Torah reading the selection from Devarim
25:17-19 which instructs us to remember what Amalek did to us on our way out of
Egypt, especially how Amalek cut down our stragglers, the famished and weary.
When we will be safely established in our own land, we are told on the one hand
to blot out the name of Amalek from under the heavens. On the other hand we are
told, “Do not forget!”
The
mitzvah of remembering what Amalek did to us constitutes one of six biblical
commands to remember. (The others include remembering the Shabbat and
remembering how God redeemed us from Egypt.) All six appear in
traditional editions of the daily siddur following the Shaharit morning service
along with other non-liturgical texts such as the Rambam’s Thirteen
Principles. Professor Abraham Joshua Heschel used to comment that the Six Remembrances
were more important than the Thirteen Principles. For Heschel sacred moments
were more significant than abstract doctrines. Time is the heart of existence.
But can one really be commanded to remember? One need not qualify as a
member of the AARP to have a faulty memory – so commanding us to remember does
not make sense. Perhaps the text’s true intention is to command us to remind
ourselves meaning that Shabbat Zachor becomes a post-it note reminding us that
while we must blot out the memory of Amalek and his kind, we must never forget
the depths to which evil is capable of plunging.
A
teacher of mine once indicated that the theological heart of the entire Torah
may well be when Moshe exhorts the Israelites to “take utmost care – so that
you do not forget the things that you saw with your own eyes – and make them
known to your children and to your children’s children” [Devarim 4:9].
But if it is possible to forget what our own eyes have seen, how much easier is
it to forget events that we have never seen, or events that occurred long
before we were born?
This
is why we need the Holocaust Museum in Skokie – to blot out the memory of
Amalek and to never forget.
This
is why we need to take our families to Israel or make sure that every student
who has not visited goes to Israel on Birthright or similar programs – like the March of the Living in Poland. For once we walk where Amalek’s victims
used to walk, and where the heroes of Israel stood ready to wipe out the memory
of Amalek will we surely secure the soul of Israel.
This
is why we need Shabbat Zachor and the Festival of Purim.
History
shapes identity. And history is dependent on the capacity to remember. The
ultimate tragedy confronting those of us who are afflicted with diseases of memory
is that we lose our identity, our sense of who we are. No loss is more tragic
than this one.
So we must tell our stories – our personal stories and our collective stories.
We
must tell them not only to our children and our children’s children, but to
ourselves as well.
Come
join us on Saturday evening and Sunday as we retell the story of the miraculous
redemption of the Jews of Persia from the evil plans of Amalek.
Shabbat Shalom and Simhat Purim,
Rabbi Matthew Futterman
ansheemet
org