Amalek & Purim, reconsidered

No group is more responsible for the collective historical trauma of the Jewish people than Amalek — an evil people who first snuck up to attack the weakest of the Israelites 3,700 years ago, reappeared in the Book of Samuel, haunted us through Haman in the Purim story, terrorized us through countless other massacres, the Holocaust, and even now in Gaza – according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. With Purim ominously approaching, so will the idea of Amalek be twisted and misappropriated to justify more war and perhaps even the killing of innocents.

The commandment to wipe out Amalek is commonly misunderstood as our obligation to kill all our enemies, including their women and children. This abominable bastardization of our sacred texts inspired Baruch Goldstein on Purim in 1994 to kill 29 Palestinians in Hebron, and is a deadly dog whistle that gives Israel’s most militant extremists a license to kill, as in the burning of a Palestinian couple and their baby in the village of Duma and the unobstructed destruction by radical settlers of Huwara and a dozen Palestinian villages since October 7th.

We must win this war against Hamas and any Iranian proxy, from modern Shushan to Yemen, from Lebanon to Gaza. Purim cannot, however, be turned into an intoxication of unchecked power and destruction; that is not what we are commanded to do. And preemptive massacres are only lines in the Purim Megillah, which lines, when read this year, should be read in a whisper.

What, then, is the real commandment regarding Amalek and how best do we honor Jewish values and traditions at this liminal and deeply painful moment in Jewish history? What is our obligation in the ongoing battle against Amalek in our era?

Contrary to popular belief, the only obligation of the Jewish people is not to wipe out Amalek – that is God’s task, says the Torah – but to somehow both “Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey from Egypt” (Deut 25:17) and to also “blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!” (Deut 25: 19).

As we approach Purim traumatized as a people by a brutal massacre – one that was filmed by its perpetrators – it is impossible to blot out the memory of the massacre. But perhaps the commandment in our day is to blot out the trauma that Hamas poisoned our consciousnesses with. Will it take an entire generation, similar to the 40 years of deliberate wandering in the desert until the slave mentality dissipated, to erase the effect of those horrific images from October 7th? Could they be any worse than what the Israelites saw with their own eyes, as Amalek swords slashed our weakest newly liberated slaves lingering unprotected at the back of our winding exodus?

Our first obligation is not to forget to blot out the memory of violence committed against us. Remember to release the trauma from our consciousness and decision-making. But also remember the dangers Amalek and others pose. Don’t let your guard down. Remember the danger that our enemies pose to us. But don’t carry the painful trauma.

It is a fine and difficult line to walk, especially when one is inebriated, as is our custom on Purim. Remember there are physical dangers all around us but don’t forget to remain free of its inherent emotional toxins.

What, then of the battle against Amalek?

The prophet Samuel anoints Saul as Israel’s first king and says: “Thus said the Lord of Hosts: I am exacting the penalty for what Amalek did to Israel, for the assault he made upon them on the road, on their way up from Egypt. Now go, attack Amalek and all that belongs to him. Spare no one, but kill alike men and women, infants and sucklings, oxen and sheep, camels and asses.” (I Samuel 15:1-3) And when Saul nearly wipes out Amalek but spares King Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, he falls out of God’s favor since the massacre was not complete.

My father, Dr. Martin Abramowitz, who let me borrow most of these ideas from a drash he gave three years ago, teaches that most of the time when the prophets of Israel give commands in God’s name, it is preceded in the text by God saying those things to the prophet. When it comes to the command by Samuel to Saul to kill all the Amalekites, God is profoundly silent and absent. Could it be that the prophet Samuel – and perhaps we in our day – misunderstand God’s very intention from the days of the Exodus? Aren’t the Jewish people obligated to commit justifiable genocide against the evil Amalekites who attacked us first?

In Exodus, God is clear: “Then God said to Moses: ‘inscribe this in a document as a reminder, and read it aloud to Joshua: I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven!…Adonai will be at war with Amalek in every generation.” (Exodus 17:14-16)

The end of the Purim story is not shameful but it is bloody. We were going to be massacred on the 14th of Adar in all 127 provinces of Ahashverosh’s empire. Self-defense is moral. The Jews rose up and killed 75,000 people that the megillah describes as “enemies” – meaning those who were going to carry out the orders to kill us.

Not everyone whom we must unfortunately kill is a descendant of Amalek. And nowhere in our tradition is there a commandment by God for us to kill innocents, especially women and children.

A deeper theological question is this: If it is ultimately God’s responsibility to wipe out Amalek, and if God is destined to be at war with Amalek in every generation, what is this Amalek that can eternally defy God’s ultimate power and not be vanquished?

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Yosef Israel Abramowitz, winner of the Covenant Award for Excellence in Jewish Education and nominated by 12 African countries for the Nobel Peace Prize, is a leading climate impact investor, donor and activist.  Stay tuned for the launch of Green Rebels: The Adventures of Kaptain Sunshine.   A study sheet on the above teaching is available at:  www.sefaria.org/sheets/550679.  Special thanks to Dr. Martin Abramowitz for his core research, wisdom and perspective. He can be followed @Kaptainsunshine