" You shall obliterate ... Amalek"

" You shall obliterate the remembrance of Amalek"

(Deuteronomy 25:19)

Elul 8, 5780/August 28, 2020

"You shall remember what Amalek did to you on the way, when you went out of Egypt... " (Deuteronomy 25:17)

This week's Torah reading, Ki Teitzei, concludes with a recap of the unprovoked, malicious attack by Amalek, who, without warning, ambushed the children of Israel just days after they left Egypt, and just days after taking her first steps as a nation - a people forged by G-d in the furnace of Egyptian bondage and liberated by G-d to become His people, forever.

That the war against Amalek was not over, not by a long shot, even though the battle had ended for the moment, was made clear even in the original account of Amalek's vicious ambush of Israel, which included these words:

"HaShem said to Moshe, Inscribe this as a memorial in the book, and recite it into Yehoshua's ears, that I will surely obliterate the remembrance of Amalek from beneath the heavens. Then Moshe built an altar, and he named it HaShem is my miracle And he said, For there is a hand on the throne of the Eternal, that there shall be a war for HaShem against Amalek from generation to generation." (Exodus 17:14-16)

The recall of the war against Amalek in Ki Teitzei reiterates and reinforces the cataclysmic nature of Israel's perpetual war against Amalek, with these words that leave no room for doubt:

"Therefore, it will be, when HaShem your G-d grants you respite from all your enemies around you in the land which HaShem, your G-d, gives to you as an inheritance to possess, that you shall obliterate the remembrance of Amalek from beneath the heavens. You shall not forget!" (Deut. 25:19)

The war is on, and it won't be over till the evil Amalek has been crushed forever, as made clear by the heathen Bilaam's earlier prophecy: 

"When he saw Amalek, he took up his parable and said, "Amalek was the first of the nations, and his fate shall be everlasting destruction." (Numbers 24:20)

The nation that started up with G-d's children for no apparent reason, in fact, was motivated by a very real and very specific reason, as revealed here in Ki Teitzei: "how he happened upon you on the way and cut off all the stragglers at your rear, when you were faint and weary, and he did not fear G-d." (Deut. 25:18) "He did not fear G-d." That's the entire reason. The ever trans-mutating, ever re-emerging, and never ending hostility and hatred that Amalek, throughout all the generations, displays toward the nation of Israel, is the result of this simple fact: He did not (and does not) fear G-d.

People that do not fear G-d will fear people that do fear G-d. And fear, unrestrained by a fear of G-d, quickly metastasizes into unfettered, deadly hatred. Whether this hatred shape-shifts into a malignant nation or into a malevolent mob, it takes on a life of its own, consuming all that stands in its path. We see this clearly today in the unbridled mob violence that has been let loose and has been wreaking havoc in cities throughout the United States and elsewhere. Whatever their stated targets are, the angry Amalekites, consumed by their own red hot rage, are, whether or not they know it, waging a war against G-d. The idea of a Creator who has shaped our world and Who calls upon humanity to honor His creation and enter into a relationship with Him, in an incendiary threat to all who have lost their fear of G-d, their love of G-d. In every evil nation, in every outraged mob or raving mad individual being propelled by the creed of Amalek, the hatred of G-d becomes manifest in the hatred of G-d's people, Israel. This is the litmus test for Amalek. The Amalekites' litany of grievances may be long, but it will always end and begin with Israel.

And so it was that Amalek was the first nation to take on G-d's children and will be the last to wage war against Israel. The antithesis of Amalek and the antidote to Amalek are one and the same: "And My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations." (Isaiah 56:7) A United Nations of love for G-d, of fear of G-d. A united humanity infused with the knowledge that we are all the children of Adam, formed by G-d and invested with life by the breath of G-d. The post-Amalek reality is drawing nearer and nearer, and this itself is the cause of Amalek's murderous reemergence. And this is the meaning of Ki Teitzei's closing words, both a warning and a promise: "Therefore, it will be, when HaShem your G-d grants you respite from all your enemies around you in the land which HaShem, your G-d, gives to you as an inheritance to possess, that you shall obliterate the remembrance of Amalek from beneath the heavens. You shall not forget!" We are forewarned to be vigilant, with the promise that victory, in G-d's name, shall be ours. Do not forget!