Remember what Amalek did to you on the way when you left Egypt. (Devarim 25:17)
There are two different words in Hebrew for remembering: פקידה and זכירה. The Ramchal writes that Yetzi’as Mitzrayim had two stages. First was פקידה and then came זכירה. We will call these two concepts “recalling” and “remembering,” respectively.
After the first phase, in which Hashem “recalled” the Jewish people’s suffering in Mitzrayim, their harsh galus still continued. This was because “recalling” is not the same as “remembering.” “Recalling,” פקידה, means that Hashem takes note of the situation and plans what to do, but He does not act differently due to “recalling” alone. This is why the harsh exile in Egypt continued, despite Hashem “recalling” their suffering.
“Remembering,” זכירה, means that Hashem doesn’t just take note of the situation and make appropriate plans. Hashem’s “remembering” means that the past is just as alive and real to Him as is the present, and He now acts according to His remembrance.
For instance, on Rosh Hashanah, our “remembrance” comes before Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and He acts in accordance with it. He allots life. He sits and writes down everything that will happen during the course of the year.
Now let’s talk about “remembering” Amalek. The Rambam writes as follows about this mitzvah:
To remember what Amalek did to us, and to hate him at all times.... And to encourage the people to hate him to the point that we do not forget our hatred of him.”
In other words, the mitzvah is not just to recall what happened, what Amalek did, but to live according to it, to act according to this remembrance. To feel how much we hate Amalek and how important it is to wipe him out.
Now, Amalek was not just a person who went by that name. He is the very essence of evil and the source of wickedness and impurity. When the Egyptians were drowning in Yam Suf, the angels in heaven did not sing their songs of joyous praise to Hashem. It was not a happy moment to Hashem when the Egyptians were perishing because the Egyptians were merely people who were evil. But Amalek is much more than that. He is the very essence of evil. The Masters of Avodah say that from this mitzvah we learn to hate all the sources of evil and impurity, as they are the “Amalek” of our times.
In our generation, if we want to hate the essence of evil, we should hate the improper newspapers and books. We need to hate the radio. They are the tools that served to destroy the Jewish people! R. Chayim of Brisk wrote that a hundred years ago, there was one people that served Hashem. There was no secularism. What was the tool that made the Haskalah? It was the improper books that spread an evil spirit throughout the Jewish people. Those books full of nonsensical ideas about atheism and rejection of Torah destroyed all the uniqueness of the Jewish people, who are the holy people.
We need to hate all these tools and not look at a newspaper or book that is unkosher. We should not turn on the radio, not even incidentally, because these are the tools that destroyed the Jewish people. This is the way to fulfill “Remember what Amalek did to you” in our generation.
R. Chayim Shmuelevitz recounted that his father would look for these improper books and burn them, and this brought him great joy. When people said to him, “There are thousands more like them,” he would respond, “It’s kefirah, it’s avodah zarah!” Since he hated these books so much, he relished each time he merited “uprooting” an avodah zarah.
A Jew told me that a number of years ago, there was a store in Meah Shearim that sold improper books. The bookseller sat and recited Tehillim all day, and while he was doing so, bachurim came in and read those books. This Jew told me that you can’t imagine how many yarmulkes were taken off in that store, and how many of those bachurim went off the Torah way.
This is the rish’us of Amalek that we need to hate in our times.
