!זָכוֹר אֵת אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה לְךָ עֲמָלֵק… תִּמְחֶה אֶת־זֵכֶר עֲמָלֵק מִתַּחַת הַשָּׁמָיִם לֹא תִּשְׁכָּח
“Remember what Amalek did to you… You must erase the memory of Amalek from under the heavens. Do not forget!”
—Deuteronomy 25:17-19
These verses rest at the center of Shabbat Zachor—the Shabbat before Purim—which we dedicate to remembering the sneak attack upon the Israelites perpetrated by Amalek, shortly after our people’s deliverance from Egypt. The timing of this ritual stems from Haman’s Amalekite ancestry, as the Book of Esther describes him as an Agagite (Agag is mentioned as King of the Amalekites in the first book of Samuel).
The command here in Deuteronomy poses a significant challenge. How does one blot out the memory of another while simultaneously memorializing their treachery? Frequently, we associate crimes with their perpetrators, which can make acts of malice feel more remote than they should. Once we have identified a transgressor—be it the Amalekites, Haman, and even the Nazis—it becomes too easy to separate ourselves from them, disregarding their humanity, and thus, the very real possibility that we could just as easily be guilty of similarly-heinous crimes.
Therefore, the Torah demands that we remember the crime and consign the memory of its culprit to the dustbin of history, reminding us that all humanity—rather than a single perpetrator—are capable of unspeakable evils. As we continually find ourselves at odds with the enemies of life and liberty, we must remember that they, like we, are humans. And should we seek, like them, to deploy the weapons of fear, greed, or hatred for our own ends, then they are who we shall become.
— Rabbi Josh Knobel