Q:
On Shabbos we’re going to lein about timcheh es zecher Amalek, about erasing the remembrance of Amalek. But if we are always trying to remember to forget Amalek, how are we going to finally do it? Wouldn’t it be better if we wouldn’t have written about Amalek and we would have forgotten about them by now?
A:
To erase the memory of Amalek is not something that’s done by ignoring it, because the Torah wants us to erase Amalek by acts. It’s the act and the attitude of mind that matters.
I’ll explain that. Just to forget Amalek is a neglect of the subject; it means you’re turning the mind away from the subject. But Hakodosh Boruch Hu doesn’t want you to do that. He wants you to put your mind on Amalek. He wants you to have thoughts of fighting Amalek and erasing Amalek. Your intention should be to erase the memory of Amalek, but you erase it by acts, by maasim, not by hesech hadaas and turning your thoughts away.
And the reason for that is because it’s not merely the lack of Amalek that’s important. The failure to think about Amalek, that’s not the achievement. The achievement is the positive attitude of being an enemy of the sonei Hashem. We have to realize that being an enemy of those who hate Hashem is a perfection of the mind. And you don’t get that perfection by just having an empty mind.
TAPE # 445
