TETZAVEH 1988

The Torah portion Tetzaveh this week is also Shabbos Zochor.  In the special maftir we read today because today is Shabbos Zochor we read how we are to remember Amalek.  Zochor is the word that is used.  We also use the same word when we refer to Shabbos, "Zochor Shabbos".  Why should it be that we should use the same word?  Also, what was the terrible sin of Amalek?  They raided the Jewish people after they left Egypt, and maybe they killed a few people, but we Jews have been subjected to many raids in the past?  Why is it that we are told to always remember Amalek?  Why aren't we also told to remember what Egypt did to us?  After all, we were slaves in Egypt for 210 years.  That we are not supposed to remember, but we are to remember what Amalek did to us.  It is true we say we remember the exodus from Egypt, but we do not remember the slavery of Egypt.  We do not make a special point of it as we do with Amalek.  We Jews have been subjected to terrible pogroms and persecution by many people, in the ancient days by the Ammonites, the Moabites, but the only people we are told to single out and remember is Amalek.  Why should this be so?

There are many answers to this.  We know that Amalek preyed on the weak and the helpless and the infirm and the old, those who drew up the rear of the Jewish people.  They attacked those who could not defend themselves.  That, of course, is the antithesis of Judaism.  Egypt enslaved us for their own reasons.  They did not try purposely to attack the weak and the old.  The only problem with this argument is that in Egypt, too, the weak and the old were attacked.  If they could not keep up the work they were even walled in the walls in place of bricks.  There were terrible cruelties that were done to us in Egypt.  Why do we say here that we should just remember Amalek?  It is true that Judaism distinguishes a culture when they take care of the weak and the helpless and the infirm.  A great society is one in which the poor and the helpless and the powerless are taken care of.  If a society is only concerned about wealth and power and its armies, then it is not a great society according to Judaism.  Yet, why was Amalek singled out in this fashion that we are to remember them every year by reading a special Torah portion?

It seems to me that in the next sentence we are told why it is that we are to remember Amalek.  It says, "Who met you in the road."  The word "Kocha" can also means "who cooled you down on the road".  The Jewish people had just left Egypt.  They were filled with enthusiasm.  They were ready to assume the yoke of the Torah and to go on to the land of Israel.  They felt they had a mission to perform and the world needed them and that they were doing a holy task.  They were, however, cooled down by Amalek.  Amalek attacked them and showed them that they were engaged in a difficult and almost impossible assignment to make the world moral.  They cooled down their ardor, and they made many Jews think that perhaps we should not even start this enterprise.  Perhaps we should desist.  After all, by trying to enter the world, having your own country, you are going to have to fight battle and kill people and things will be rough, maybe the world should learn how to be moral a different way.  They cooled down the Jewish people's enthusiasm for being a Jew, and that was what we are to remember.  We are to remember that there will always be problems.  In every age people are going to rise who will try to destroy the Jewish people's will to be Jews.  We see that in our day and we see that throughout history.  We Jews should be prepared to protect our vision, not just ourselves but our vision.

Who did Amalek attack?  Amalek attacked the Tribe of Dan.  The rabbis say that the Tribe of Dan were composed of people who were still worshipping idols.  In Egypt they worshipped idols and combined their idolatry with Judaism.  When they left Egypt they still had not gotten rid of their idols.  That is why they were outside the clouds of glory.  That is why Amalek thought he could attack them easily, because he did not just want to attack them.  He wanted Jews to desist from being Jews, to give up the Jewish enterprise, and he thought that if he would attack the least spiritual, the least Jewish of the Jews, they would give up easily.  But Moshe Rabbeinu came to their defense.  He said, "They are still Jews.  They have the name Jew on them even though they are not pious Jews."  We Jews always have to remember that in this world there are many who are always trying to make us stop being Jews.  We are confronted by all sorts of groups in the United States who try to get Jews assimilate quicker and adopt other religions.  In Israel today that is what is going on.  There are many groups and many people who want Jews to give up.  They say, "Why do you need an Israel?  Forget about an Israel.  Adopt policies which will make sure the PLO will come to power."  The PLO, of course, has declared unending war on the State of Israel.  As recently as last summer they once again reaffirmed their covenant that their ultimate goal is to destroy Israel.  If we adopt certain policies that will be the result.  Many Jews are tired and say, "We have fought for 40 years.  Let's give up the enterprise."  That is why there are people that are leaving Israel, but even within Israel there are those who try to delude themselves and compromise on this and compromise on that when actually they, themselves, know that is just the beginning of the end.  There are many Jews who are tired that do not want to be Jews anymore, and that, of course, is what Amalek tries to do in every generation: to destroy the Jewish will to be Jews.  We must always remember that we need Israel for two principal reasons: spiritual reasons and physical reasons, the physical safety and security of the Jewish people.

I am reminded of the story they tell that Rabbi Hanoch Teller has in his book about a Jew in America who was very assimilated and was going to quit Judaism, but he decided he would give it one last chance.  He would go to Israel.  He went to Israel and went to a religious kibbutz.  On this religious kibbutz he was given the job of shoveling fruit, which was not of high quality, into a grinding machine to make juice.  The good fruit they were going to export, but the second and third grade fruit they would make juice from.  As he was doing this job shoveling the fruit into the grinder he slipped and he, himself, fell into the grinder.  He saw his life's history pass before his eyes.  He was sure he was going to meet a horrible end.  All of a sudden an arm pulled down and grabbed him and picked him up.  There, that hand that grabbed his shoulder, emblazoned on that arm was the numbers of a concentration camp victim.  He had those numbers burned on his mind as he was pulled out of that grinder and saved from a horrible death by just inches.  He profusely thanked the man who helped him, and they became good friends.  A few weeks later he received his Israeli citizenship papers and, lo and behold, the last four numbers on his Israeli citizenship paper were the same numbers as the numbers on that man's arm.  A few weeks later he received an apartment, and the first three letters of the number of this man on his arm was the same number as his apartment.  He went to the man again and thanked him for saving his life, and he asked him what he could do for him.  The man said, "I have no family.  Be my family.  1'11 be your family and you'll be my family.  Let me be part of a family.  All my family was killed in the Holocaust."  He agreed and quickly acclimated to Israel, learned Hebrew, and then decided he would be a guide leading different UJA missions and rabbi's missions to Israel explaining everything in English to the Americans.  One day he was leading a tour and on the tour was a sort of Chutzpanik nervy fellow who wore dark glasses and fancy clothes and rings and was always being obnoxious.  He did not like this man very well.  He led the group through the different sights of Israel for a few days.  One day as he was lighting a cigarette, the man reached out and said, "Let me light that cigarette for you," in a very strong accent.  As he did his sleeve moved up his arm and there he saw a concentration camp number etched on his arm.  He noticed, though, something strange.  That number was the same number as the number of the man who saved him except for the last letter.  He quickly told the driver that he wanted to show them other sights, and he explained the different sights as he went to this religious kibbutz.  There he went into the kibbutz and he explained to the members everything about the kibbutz, and he asked them if they would please step out.  He took them around the kibbutz and introduced this man to the man who had saved him, and, sure enough, they were brothers.  That is why there was only one number different, 702 and 703.  The man in Israel did not know he had anyone left.  He thought everyone had perished in the Holocaust and the man in the United States thought the same thing.  He had saved his life, but he had given him back his family.

That is why we need Israel.  We need Israel for the spiritual salvation of the Jewish people so we should not assimilate completely, and we also need Israel for the physical security of the Jewish people.  Let us always remember this.  The media today would just as soon that Israel disappear.  The Arabs today think that Israel will disappear.  That is why they will not meet with Schultz and will make no concessions.  They want the PLO.  The PLO means the end of Israel.  Let us always be steadfast and firm.  We need Israel.  Israel is for the spiritual growth of the Jewish people and for our physical safety.

I am reminded of the story they tell about a man who went to see Senator Javitz in his cavernous Senate office building.  Senator Javitz was in England.  The man walked and walked and finally came to the office of Senator Javitz.  He went up to the secretary and said, "I would like to see Senator Javitz.  I have walked a long way."  The girl said, "I am sorry, sir.  If you had made an appointment, I'm sure he would have been happy to see you, but he is in the United Kingdom."  The man said, "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.  Is it too late to send flowers?" That, of course, is what people want to do to Israel, to arrange for its funeral, but Israel is still alive and kicking.  Israel will be alive and kicking because we need it for Judaism's spiritual growth and for the physical safety of the Jewish people.

That is, too, why Shabbos Zochor almost always occurs on the Sabbath of Parsha Tetzaveh.  Tetzaveh opens by teaching us about the oil, the olive oil which burned in the menorah.  This is the symbol of the spiritual destiny of the Jewish people, and it ends by telling us about the incense altar which was placed in the holy part of the Tabernacle.  The incense altar was to teach the Jewish people that they were to always enshrine as ideals holiness, purity, mercy, and hope.  The Jewish people should never give up on their physical survival or their spiritual ideals.  That is why we need Israel today: for the spiritual development of the Jewish people and for its physical presence.  Shabbos, too, teaches us the same thing.  We must survive and Israel must survive.