Parshas Zachor is biblically required to be read/heard once a year so we remember the mitzvah to eradicate the memory of Amalek. This seems to be an oxymoron of sorts. We must remember to not remember them? But when we remember, we’re remembering them!
One way to explain this is to get to the heart of what Amalek stood for. They were dedicated to taking the Jews away from serving Hashem and proving to the world that the Jewish People is no more special than any other nation on earth.
They “met” us on the road. The word, korcha, conveys a number of things.
- Coincidence. They wanted us not to see the hand of Hashem in things.
- Impure. They tried to engage in and convince us that immoral relations were acceptable.
- Cool, as in to make others unafraid of harming us lest they be “burnt” by Hashem’s retribution.
If we remember the emptiness of their mission, and the fact that if they needed to fight against these things, they must be true, then we can nullify their impact on our lives and “forget” them.
When we recall that Hashem controls everything and there is retribution against our enemies when we are pure and holy, as we see in the Megilla, we are vaccinating ourselves against the disease that is Amalek and wiping it off the planet.
