The Sanctification of Evil
Remembering Amalek is insufficient. We must also eliminate the attempt to twist evil's reputation into something good.
Some thoughts that occurred to me when listening to the weekly Torah portion in the synagogue yesterday, which concluded with the commandment to remember Amalek…
Remember what Amalek did to you on your way out of Egypt - when they met you on the way, attacking all of the weak in the rear, while you were tired and weary; and they did not fear God. So when Hashem your God gives you peace from all of your enemies that surround you in the land that Hashem your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must erase the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens; do not forget. (Devarim 25:17-19)
Of course, this will not be a halachic analysis of a complex issue. Lest there be any misunderstanding, the laws relating to our relationship with the physical nation of Amalek are not operable today. Period.1
We continue, however, to follow the commandment to “remember what Amalek did to you on your way out of Egypt.” Every year, on the Shabbat immediately before Purim, people crowd into the synagogue to hear the reading of the three verses that outline this mitzvah. Practical implications aside, the Jewish people knows better than most that evil exists - and we forget this sad reality at our own literal peril.
We remember every year that truth is greater than one’s personal narrative, that goodness is more than the confluence of individuals’ self-interest, that the virtuous act is not undermined by an empty insistence on moral relativism. By the same token, there are evil people and evil actions. The fact that others pretend that evil is good, does not undermine evil’s reality.
What, however, is the importance of erasing the remembrance of Amalek? Why is simply recalling the evil of Amalek insufficient?
Because the remembrance of evil - the lauding of evil as if it is good, and the upholding of evil’s reputation as something other than what it really is - has deadly consequences.
Early this morning, the Houthis in Yemen launched a hypersonic missile at Tel Aviv. Its goal was the slaughter of innocent Jews, and the sowing of panic among Israel’s civilian population. As Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree proudly (and incorrectly) announced, “It forced more than two million Zionists to run to shelters for the first time in the enemy’s history.” (In fact, the missile disintegrated in the air.)
Why has Yemen, which is situated 2300 kilometers to the southeast of Israel, continued to fire drones and missiles at a country which, according to any normal calculus, has nothing to do with it? Why does it revel in the possibility of mass civilian casualties among the Jews?
In Saree’s words, because of the Houthis’ “religious and moral duty.”
His is a warped religious duty; it is the sanctification of evil. Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, along with their Iranian patron, openly laud the murder of Jews as a positive good, and any Israeli response as an intolerable evil.
Theirs is the consecration of evil’s reputation, of the remembrance of Amalek.
Homiletically, erasing the remembrance of Amalek means that it is not enough to counter the evil of the genocidal regime alone; we must also fight against the people who memorialize evil as if it were good, and those who twist wickedness so that it will be remembered as a positive. The individuals who assign religious, social, and cultural value to death and destruction - those who choose to remember Amalek as humanity’s heroes - are complicit in the actual death and destruction which occur as a consequence.
With the start of the fall semester at universities across North America, students once again gather, keffiyehs proudly tied wrapped around their shoulders, to tell whoever will listen that they stand on the side of Amalek. They, too, bask in the reputation of evildoers.
The exemplars of social justice barge into supermarkets and ostentatiously try to prevent people from purchasing any item produced in Israel. (In this particular video, “occupied land” refers to Ashdod.) They are inspired by the remembrance of Hamas and its Iranian allies, who, in their warped imagination, represent the forces of good.
The list goes on. Endlessly.
We must acknowledge that evil is real; for that reason we annually recall Amalek.
We also must fight against those who praise the memory of evil, distorting their own moral sense such that evil is good, murder is righteous, kidnapping is justified, and genocide is deserved.
It’s not enough to battle evil. We must also confront those who would allow evil’s reputation to thrive.
I am confident asserting that even the approach advocated by some in the Brisker community - that Amalek refers to any people who are defined by their goal of killing all Jews - is both a minority opinion, as well as a theoretical construct rather than a practical norm.
Thank you for sharing this.
Great article. The Palestinian supporters care nothing about the Palestinians: I would encourage people to read this: https://graymirror.substack.com/p/clearpill-yourself-on-gaza
"Imagine someone you love—not a moral abstraction, a real person. Your child. Your mother. Your brother. Your spouse. Even just a friend. Everyone, even Peter Singer, has friends. Suppose your friend is a civilian—has never used a weapon and never will...You want to get them to safety. To get them away from the war. Of course...Now—extend this concern, mechanically, to all the civilians of Gaza. Since you care about these people, your first goal is to get them out of the war zone. To take them somewhere they have safety and food and water. Now—think about all the people in the world who care about the Palestinians. Who are in the streets, waving flags, the whole nine yards. How many care this way? How many are demonstrating to ask Hamas and Israel, together: please, let the civilians out of the war zone? Move them? Move them anywhere—an AirBNB in Thailand? A tent city in Mozambique? Anywhere that bombs aren’t falling? Hm....Also: if this isn’t what all the “pro-Palestinian” people in the West want, who does want it? Who would be happy with this outcome? How about—the Israeli army?...So: when you try to build sympathy for the Palestinians from first principles, you get—what most “Israel supporters” want. When you try to build cynical exploitation of the Palestinians from first principles, you get—what most “Palestine supporters” want. The one way it makes sense is if all these nice, nice people support Hamas more than the population Hamas governs—which is the exact opposite of what they say."