WE MUST DO MORE THAN REMEMBER Rabbi Michael G . Kohn
“ Zakhor et asher asar l ’ kha amalek – Remember what Amalek did to you ...” ( Deut . 21:17 ) begins the opening verse of Maftir Zakhor , the Torah portion read on the Shabbat before Purim . That command to remember – both in the Torah and experienced throughout the millennia – refers to episodes which Jews have had every reason to forget . Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi has written that
“ Only in Israel and nowhere else is the injunction to remember felt as a religious imperative to an entire people [ because it is ] crucial to its faith and ultimately to its very existence .”
So we remember Amalek , and Haman , and the Romans , and the Nazis , and Hamas , and those many other individuals and groups who have sought to do Jews harm , if not to totally destroy us as a people and religion . In our own generation , whether we are living in Israel , the United States , or other Western countries , there are those whose hatred , as expressed through their speech and actions , remind us of our place in their world , as if simply remembering those who came and went before was not enough .
Amalek preyed on the famished and weary , on the weak and tired . Fortunately , we Jews are no longer famished , weary , weak , or tired . But we are forgetful . For more than 50 years , we in the West have enjoyed relatively few newsworthy incidents of antisemitism . Major incidents , such as the Hypercasher kosher market in France , the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh , and the Colleyville Synagogue in Texas , were rare . But simply because antisemitism had not surfaced , did not mean it was not always present . Yet , we acted oblivious to the unseen threat .
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