TETZAVEH 1985

Today is Parshas Zochar.  We are all commanded to remember what Amalek did to the Jewish people.  We Jews are not commanded to hate, we are commanded to remember.  We have a tendency to believe that there is no evil in the world.  We Jews are not commanded to hate our enemies but to remember them.  Today we do not want Mengele killed in some back alley in Paraguay.  We want him brought to trial.  We want the world to know about the terrible atrocities he committed so they will not be repeated in the future.  We Jews have a tendency to be very optimistic and to doubt that evil exists.  Many times we even feel that if we are hated or persecuted, there must be something wrong with us.  We feel that perhaps we are not educated enough or polite enough.  This is, of course, nonsense.  Hitler hated the assimilated Jew more than the traditional Jew because he considered the Jew a virus in the mainstream.  He felt you had to get rid of the Jew if humanity was to have a chance to do great things.  Jews were like vermin or cockroaches.  You had to get rid of the Jews.  He believed that until you got rid of the Jews, mankind would not be able to rise to the heights it could.  The Jew was stopping progress.  We Jews do not believe in original sin.  We do not believe that we are under the power of sin.  We believe that man can be good, and man has the power to be good, but sometimes we forget that man also has the power to do bad or evil.  That we should never forget.  The anti-Semites remind us of this.  It is true that not all Jews are good.  We have criminals and shady characters, but the truth of the matter is, we would be hated even if we did not have them.  Jewish crooks are, after all, a much smaller percentage than the general community.  They do not hate the Italians as they hate the Jews although everyone knows the Mafia is mostly composed of Italians.  The rabbis ask, why is it that Amalek has been singled out as the arch enemy of the Jew?  After all, there were other people that also attacked us.  Amalek attacked the weak, the stragglers, and it says he did not fear G‑d.  What do we mean when we speak about a G‑d fearing person?  What we mean is a person who, even when he can get away with something immoral and no one will know and he will never get caught, he still will not do it.  A G‑d fearing person does not mean, in Jewish tradition, a person who prays all day or learns all day.  It means a person who, when he can use his power to get away with something to harm others or abuse others, he does not do it.  That is a G‑d fearing person.  Amalek preyed on the weak.  If we look at the text carefully we can see, too, what else he did.  It says, "Remember that which Amalek did to you."  "To you" here is singular.  "And the way in which you went out from Egypt."  "You went out" is plural.  Amalek was able to destroy Jewish unity.  He was able to single out individuals in order to pounce on them.  Hitler, too, attacked one Jewish group at a time.

The rabbis say, in commenting on the verse, "Asheer Chochor Haderech" "that he met you on the way and he smote among you all the stragglers after you and you were tired and weary."  They explain that the word "Chochor" in Hebrew has other meanings besides "met you."  Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbi Nechemiah argue on what Chochor means.  Rabbi Yehudah said Chochor can also mean to "call you."  Amalek called the Jewish people one by one out of the camp and pounced upon them and attacked them.  Rabbi Nechemiah said that Chochor means that he made them "cold," he "diminished their ardor" for Jewish things.  There are two types of anti-Semites.  There is a type, like Hitler, who picks off Jews one by one, who first puts them in ghettos and isolates them and then destroys them.  There are others, like the Russians today, who want to destroy the Jewish soul.  They want to make the Jewish people lose their ardor for Judaism.  They portray Judaism in the worst light.  They want to convince Jews that Judaism is a terrible thing.  The rabbis tell us that there are two times that the word "Zochar" is mentioned in the Torah.  One is "Zochar remember Amalek" and the other is "Zochar remember Shabbos."  What does remember the Shabbos have to do with remembering Amalek?  

The rabbis, though, compare the two concepts.  They tell us that Zochar remember Shabbos means to sit around the table, to sing Zemiros, to eat good food, and Zochar remember Amalek has none of these things.  Of course, it has none of these things.  What are the rabbis trying to teach us here?  There are two reasons why Jews remain Jews.  One is because of Amalek.  We Jews know that we have to band together, otherwise they will pick us off one by one.  We know that unless Jews stick together we will all be massacred.  Hitler taught us that lesson again.  This is an ADL type of Judaism.  It is important to fight anti-Semitism.  It is important to always be on our guard, but more important is to believe that Judaism elevates the soul, to believe that Judaism is necessary for Jews to lead a spiritual life.  We all know that we have to support Israel because if we do not support Israel, if another tyrant comes to power we will have no place to go, and we could be wiped out.  That is Zochar Ha Amalek, remembering Amalek.  We do not want to be picked off one by one; however, Amalek can kill us another way, through assimilation, if we lose our ardor and appreciation for Judaism.  That's where Zochar Ha Shabbos comes in.  Judaism is necessary for us to lead a spiritual life.  It is necessary to elevate our souls.  I recently returned from a Rabbinical Cabinet meeting of Israel Bonds.  It was a wonderful experience, not just because everyone present knew the important of maintaining Israel so that Jews will not be picked off one by one anymore, but because everyone felt that we need Israel in order that Judaism flourish, that there could be an efflorescence of Judaism to elevate our souls in the world.  We cannot let Amalek ever let us grow cold and lose our ardor for our religion.  If we do so it will be as bad as if he picked us off one by one.  There is a strong feeling throughout the Jewish community that Israel is not just a haven for survival, but also a center for Jewish revival and growth.  The story about a man who asked three friends what they would like to have said about them in 100 years.  The first said, "I would like it said about me that I was a good businessman."  The second one said, "I would like it said about me that I was a good father."  The third looked at them, puzzled, and said, "I would like it said about me, 'My, doesn't he look good for his age?'" That's the feeling I received at this conference: My, doesn't Judaism look good for all its age?