Dear Readers,
This year my birthday falls on Shabbat – this Shabbat, March 12! – and I admit, I feel added pressure to make this piece more meaningful, somehow. I don’t know if it will be, but just to say, I write to you from a place of elevated focus. And as it happens, this week is a special Shabbat for the Jewish people as a whole. This Shabbat is called Shabbat Zachor. Here is how Hebcal.com describes it:
Shabbat Zachor ("Sabbath [of] remembrance שבת זכור) is the Shabbat immediately preceding Purim. Deuteronomy 25:17-19, describing the attack by Amalek, is recounted. There is a tradition from the Talmud that Haman, the antagonist of the Purim story, was descended from Amalek. The portion that is read includes a commandment to remember the attack by Amalek, and therefore at this public reading people make a special effort to hear the reading.
And here is Deuteronomy 25:17-19 (TLV), but we will talk more about this later.
Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!
So, it seems the task is clear – a discussion of memory.
I am grateful for you all, my readers. If you feel so inclined, in this week in particular, please share my work with someone you think might appreciate or need it in their inbox. Thank you for taking the time to subscribe and be with me.
Love, Meg.
It seems strange that we would have a specific Shabbat called Shabbat Zachor – Shabbat of Remembrance. Memory and the commandment to remember is baked into the cake of the entire Torah and Jewish life as we know it.
For example, in Exodus we are told to “remember the sabbath day.” When God makes the covenant with Noah (after the flood) to never wipe out all life on Earth ever again, God says God will “remember” it. We are reminded to “remember that you were a slave in Egypt.” Remember the covenant, remember your enemies. Remember. Remember. Remember. The concordance puts this word at 232 occurrences throughout the Hebrew bible.
And what’s more, we aren’t just told to remember. We are given technology and structure to make sure we remember. The mezuzot we hang in our doorways are to remind us of the shema – the oneness of our source of life and the commandment to teach our children to love with all their heart, soul, and might. Our daily liturgy reminds us of many things – the miracle of waking up, for starters. Our liturgy around meal times remind us of the bounty of the earth and how grateful we ought to be to receive every single meal. Our calendar reminds us of historical events in Jewish history, ancient and modern. It reminds us of the Torah stories – the seasonal festivals are connected to key plot points in the Torah such that every spring, we can’t help but think about the rebirth of the Israelites and the story of the Exodus.
When someone dies, we say zichronam livracha – may their memory be a blessing. We read their name every year on their yahrzeit (anniversary of their death) in community and say the mourner’s kaddish. Remember. Remember. Remember.
So why name one Shabbat, Shabbat Zachor, Shabbat of Remembrance?
Here is the passage from Deuteronomy (as shared above) that we are specifically supposed to remember on this Shabbat. Let us look at it closely:
Deuteronomy 25:17-19 (TLV)
Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!
זָכוֹר אֵת אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה לְךָ עֲמָלֵק בַּדֶּרֶךְ בְּצֵאתְכֶם מִמִּצְרָיִם׃
יחאֲשֶׁר קָרְךָ בַּדֶּרֶךְ וַיְזַנֵּב בְּךָ כׇּל־הַנֶּחֱשָׁלִים אַחֲרֶיךָ וְאַתָּה עָיֵף וְיָגֵעַ וְלֹא יָרֵא אֱלֹהִים׃
יטוְהָיָה בְּהָנִיחַ יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לְךָ מִכׇּל־אֹיְבֶיךָ מִסָּבִיב בָּאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר יְהֹוָה־אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לְךָ נַחֲלָה לְרִשְׁתָּהּ תִּמְחֶה אֶת־זֵכֶר עֲמָלֵק מִתַּחַת הַשָּׁמָיִם לֹא תִּשְׁכָּח׃ {פ}
In summary, we are told to remember that Amalek was evil to you so when you are in a good place, you can blot out their name. The verb used, machah, can be translated to “wipe out,” “blot out” or “abolish.” And specifically, the text says, you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek – the same root word we’ve been going on and on about above. In other words, this passage is saying, “when the time comes, remember to forget the name of Amalek.”
Why would we want to forget the name of Amalek? The text says to do this “when God gives you rest from all the enemies around you.” In other words, when you are finally safe, do not remember this ancient foe. Maybe Torah is saying, hey, when you are safe, let yourself be safe. When you have no enemies, don’t let your mind revert to thinking about past enemies.
When the time comes, curate your memory – you no longer need to remember them. When the time comes, forget.
Now, I don’t want to psychoanalyze the Torah (actually, I kinda do) but this seems like a classic lesson in managing anxiety. Look around you and notice what things are really like right now. Are you healthy? Are you breathing? Is anyone seeking to harm you? No? Ok then, let your thoughts be so and do not slip into recalling past dangers. This is hard, hard work. Remembering you are safe when you have experienced true danger in the past can be the work of a lifetime.
And how can you command someone to forget something? It would be impossible to fully forget something without, say, serious surgical intervention or hypnosis or scary drugs. So this is clearly not the point. The point is, if you can, to choose to stop actively remembering. As discussed above, memory requires maintenance. To keep something alive in your mind, you need to set up your world to facilitate it. You need to set up habits and rituals to keep it there. You need to repeat it often or be around people, places or things that trigger those memories.
Maybe Shabbat Zachor is actually about how we are the curators of our own memory museums. We get to choose what we keep putting on display. We get to choose what defines our exhibits and which pieces we value the most.
I can’t help wondering how this intersects with forgiveness, which, as it happens, is a big theme in this week’s Torah portion. We all know the phrase, “forgive and forget,” and maybe there is some deeper truth there. If we have truly forgiven someone of a past harm, would it still be primary in our mind when we are around them? In other words, can we measure how well we have forgiven by how well we have forgotten – by what we choose to mount prominently on the walls of our memory?
All I know for sure is you are the one living in your own personal museum. So, may you choose wisely.