This Shabbos, when we read Parshas Zachor, we will be fulfilling the Biblical mitzvah of remembering the bad things that Amalek did to the Jewish people. If the Torah commands us to remember what he did, for thousands and thousands of years, there must be an important message in it. Apparently, Amalek is threatening us, too.
But just remembering isn't enough. We are to blot out Amalek entirely. That's a powerful order. There are lots of nations who have caused us grief during our long history, who ostensibly did worse to us by several orders of magnitude, but we have no mitzvah to blot them out. Let's take the Egyptians as an example. They enslaved us, subjected us to severe physical labor, drowned our babies, Pharaoh bathed in our children's blood, and the list doesn't stop there. They were pretty bad. But nowhere does the Torah tell us to wipe out Egyptians. So why wipe out Amalek, and remind ourselves of this solemn obligation every single year?
Chazal say that אשר קרך בדרך means Amalek cooled us down when we were on our way out of Egypt. What does this mean?
When a person does an aveirah and acts wickedly, he is also setting an example that encourages others to do the same, and this is not good. But it doesn't mean that he steps on and makes a total joke out of everything. When Pharaoh threw Jewish babies into the Nile, he wasn't trying to show that murdering innocent people is legitimate and perfectly okay. He was just brazenly committing murder, so midah k'neged midah, Hashem killed all the firstborn of the Egyptians.
Amalek was different. When he came to fight the Jewish people, he demonstrated such total disregard for them, as if killing them off is nothing. He made a joke out of them. He showed that there is absolutely no reason to fear the Jews, or Hakadosh Baruch Hu Who goes with them in a pillar of fire and cloud. No reason to be impressed by the great miracles that were wrought for them. He just made a big joke out of the whole thing, as if we are one big nothing, so we are commanded to make sure he becomes one big nothing.
Amalek will get what's coming to him. But what's the message for us?
Let's say a Jew casually converses with the person next to him in shul during davening or Krias Hatorah. You can see it written all over his face that he sees no issue with this at all, it's perfectly okay to talk devarim beteilim in the shul. It's not an aveirah so leave me alone.
It's like he is saying there's no problem with desecrating Shabbos or eating pork. It's not an aveirah. That's a maaseh Amalek. He's making it all into one big nothing.
We are commanded to remember what Amalek did, so we won't do the same thing.
Just as this applies to a lot of areas in Torah and avodas Hashem, it also applies in practical, everyday matters. Let's say people are standing at the crosswalk waiting for the light to turn green. Someone comes along and just walks across while it is still red. What's he saying? That it's not dangerous. Don't pay attention to stoplights; they're not to be taken seriously.
This is not a good thing at all because he is setting an example that encourages others, adults and children, not to take a red light so seriously. However, traffic lights save lives. He is "cooling" it down, אשר קרך בדרך, like Amalek did. Tomorrow or the next day, a child could run across the street because of him, and not make it.
On Shabbos Zachor, when we remember what Amalek did, let's remember also that we shouldn't do the same.
