Robert Alter - Purim - Parshat Zachor - Do Not Glorify Amalek - The Bibas Family Tragedy

"17 Remember what Amalek did to you on the way when you came out of Egypt, 18 how he fell upon you on the way and cut down all the stragglers, with you famished and exhausted, and he did not fear God.

19 And it shall be, when the LORD your God grants you respite from all your enemies around in the land that the LORD your God is about to give you in estate to take hold of it, you shall wipe out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens, you shall not forget. "

Many people are confused by this commandment to "remember", don't remember and don't forget.

A close reading of the verses resolves confusion about:

- a commandment to remember Amalek in verse 17;

- to "wipe out" remembering Amalek in verse 19;

- and finally "you shall not forget" Amalek at end of verse 19.

Simply put, following Alter's notes and approaches, here is my own sense of it:

*The Jews must remember the full horror of what Amalek did, a unique encounter with evil in all its forms. Never forget nor minimize how bad it was - in extreme horror, deceptions and radical evil, nearly impossible to believe it exists.

*But: Others will go on remembering Amalek for its greatness! They will glorify the greatness of Amalek, like Hitler and Nazis are remembered in 2025 as role models for more struggle against the Jews, in order to destroy them and all the decency and values they represent.

This "remembering of Amalek" by generations of Jew hating, evil doers glorifies Amalek. This is what we are commanded to wipe out from under the heavens. Wipe out glorification of Amalek that will arise in each generation..

The commandment is not to wipe out Amalek followers per se but to wipe out all the lies and horror of the campaign to restore, invigorate and permanently install Amalek evil over Jews and their Traditions in body and soul.

* Finally why does it say; Do Not Forget? Forget what exactly? I suggest this means do not forget all that Amalek did. Do not forget their extreme evil with the passage of time, when another generation may soften the historic truths, or fall victim to the new Amaleck's fraud, deceptions and propaganda - and understandable fear of war and terror. The Traditions emphasize that Amaleck will not go away but rather will arrive in new versions in many many new generations. So the verse warns the Jewish People to recognize the shape-shifting extreme evil and remember what Amalek has consistently done before and stop the glorification of Amalek. In contrast, Jews glorify their Traditions of goodness, of facing evil squrely as it arises and fighting of Amalek and all who would glorify it.

See a prior post on Purim and its relevance to Hamas as Amalek: Robert Alter - Parshat Zachor - Purim - What Amalek Stands for? Fraud and Deception leading to Brutality? We Await the Return of all of the October 7th Hostages and of the IDF soldiers Winning the War against Hamas. Major John Spencer on Urban Tunnel Warfare. | Sefaria]

17:14 I will surely wipe out the name of Amalek . The noun zekher , though cognate with “remembrance,” zikaron , in the previous clause, here bears its odious Amalek, but the nation will lose its “name,” its posterity—an ultimate curse in the ancient Near East. In all this, as in the Plagues narrative, history is transformed into symbolic typology. Ancient Israel was surrounded by enemies—the Canaanite peoples with whom it fought for territory, marauders like the Midianites to the east and the Amalekites to the south, and the great empires of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Historical survival required nearly continual armed conflict. But distinctions are made among enemies, and Amalek here becomes the very type of the ruthless foe that seeks to annihilate Israel. (Hence much later, in the Book of Esther, Haman will be cast as a descendant of the Amalekite king Agag.) This nation, then, becomes the enemy of God Himself, Who pledges its utter destruction.

17:16 - from all time . The Hebrew noticeably says “from,” mi , and not l e , “for.” Perhaps the meaning is the same, though this formulation could suggest a kind of mythic recess of ages, God warring against Amalek as far back as anyone can conceive and until this foe is destroyed.

Exodus 17: 8, 14, 15 - There are relevant notes by Alter, especially about the unique ruthlessness of Amalek, its ancient roots as an adversary and it's enduring evil threat into future generations. They also record by a book, a writing (a new method of emphasis) on Jews defending themselves with military measures when necessary - perhaps decapitating the enemy, per Rashi and others.)

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[MS: Amid the extensive protests and reporting on this tragedy - within other monstrosities and vile, unimaginable, un-human practices normalized by Hamas and globally praised out loud or by silent acquiescence - this tragedy marks the horror of Hamas - and is memorialized here.

This is the face of today's Amaeck and their "Remembrance of Amalek" , which should be opposed and blotted out in each generation.

This is how Hamas glorifies the ways of Amleck, resurrects it, and for its sake, would destroy the Jews and all decent human-faced societies.

Daniel Gordis' daily podcast "Israel from the Inside" has accurate and profound coverage of the terrible ordeal from the Israeli perspective. All Israel spoke with broken hearts day by day about it, especially the President of Israel, Herzog.

Do Not Forget.]

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