Today is one of four weeks leading up to Passover where we have an extra portion to read from a second scroll. This reading comes from the Book of Deuteronomy 25:17-19 and comes on the Shabbat just before Purim. Just three verses. Why before Purim? Because the Talmud teaches that Haman was a descendent of the Amalekites.
Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt—how, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear. Therefore, when your God יהוה grants you safety from all your enemies around you, in the land that your God יהוה is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!
Remember not to forget. The Torah is serious about this. Very serious. There is something reprehensible about attacking the rear guard, the famished, the weary, the children and women and the aged. The ones who can’t quite keep up. Full stop. Then and now.
We draw a line from the King of the Amalekites, to King Saul, as we just heard in the haftarah, to Haman, to Hitler…our texts say that in every generation an enemy rises up against us. We even have jokes about it. “They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat.” And yet, it’s really not so funny.
Much ink has been spilled trying to figure out why there is so much anti-semitism and what we can do about it. I don’t know that I can explain it any better than Jonathan Greenblatt from the ADL or Bari Weiss or Rabbi Evan Moffic all of who have written extensively on this topic. I am distressed by the recent article in the Atlantic whose headline suggests that the Golden Age of American Jews is Ending. This article has been shared with me (I subscribe so I had already seen it) with people who describe themselves on the left and the right. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/04/us-anti-semitism-jewish-american-safety/677469/?utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_content=edit-promo&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook
That’s relevent because we are now fighting anti-semitism on the left and the right. Some are surprised because we thought we were past all this. Our students in college are feeling it the most. And kids in middle schools and high schools feel it too. THe “jokes” are reprehensible. The bullying and threats of physical violence are beyond scary. Make no mistake, you are not alone. If you have a problem please reach out to me. And I have been talking with administrations in U46, D-300 and D-301. We have students and staff in 11 different school districts, so I am sure there is more work to do. Remember, not to forget.
But there is a danger in this text. We are told to remember. And that we should take an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth etc. but that was seen even by Talmudic times as monetary damages. In other places we are told that “vengeance is Mine,” sayeth the Lord. We are not told to seek revenge. We are told to love our neighbors as ourselves and to not hold a grudge. We are told that G-d forgives to the 1000th generation but for some sins there is no forggiveness to the 3rd and 4th generation. That is what I focused my rabbinic thesis on. As part of that I looked at domestic violence which sometimes extends from generation to generation. I examined German Jewish reconciliation because we are now in the third and fourth generation after the Holocaust. Is reconciliation even possible? And, almost unbelievably, I researched generational trauma in the Israeli Palestinian crisis.
I don’t have an answer. But this I do know. What we are doing isn’t working. And my heart is breaking. It breaks with every report of sexual violence perpetrated on October 7th. I stand with organizations like Hadassah and NCJW who have decried it and have pushed the UN to finally acknowledge it. It breaks with my niece whose cousin is still a hostage. It breaks with every family that has been displaced in the north and the south. With every student that is struggling to figure out schooling in a hotel room. With every business owner that has had to shutter their business or who has been called up in the reserves. And my heart breaks for the Bibas family, those adorable red heads are spending Purim in a tunnel if they are even alive.
This is the poem prayer I wrote for the AJR Haggadah Supplement, Seder Interrupted.
Midrash (from Megillah 10)
“The Egyptians were drowning in the sea. At the same time, the angels wanted to sing before God, and the Lord, God, said to them: ‘My creations are drowning, and you are singing before me?'”
A Plague Poem for This Moment:
My creatures are drowning…
Why are you singing?
A drop of wine
A drop of blood
Not just 10 for the plagues
Too many drops to count this year
Maybe every year
A drop of wine
A drop of blood
We rejoice with each hostage freed
Out of the narrow places
A drop of wine
A drop of blood
A tunnel is a narrow place
A very narrow place
We weep for each life lost
Child, woman, man
Every Gazan, Every Israeli
Every soldier
Every “non-combatant”
Every victim from any country
Every person
Each created in the image of the Divine
A drop of wine
A drop of blood
We weep for each victim
Each victim of terror
Each victim of sexual assault
Each victim of displacement
Each victim of brutality
Each victim of promises made
And promises shattered
Each victim searching for water
And searching for food
And searching for safety
Searching for school
And searching for healing
Each victim of fear
We pray that soon
All will be out of the tunnels
Out of the narrow places
G-d admonished the angels
“My creatures are drowning, and you rejoice?”
A drop of wine
A drop of blood
Too, too many drops this year
We cannot sing this year
Next year may all be free
Out of the narrow places.
Years from now, we will continue to remember not to forget what happened on October 7th. There will be prayers. Lord, hear our prayers. Sh’ma Koleinu.
This week we hear the very first verse of our parsha. If we listen very carefully, we might hear the silent sound of alef. “Vayikra Adonai el Moshe. And G-d called to Moses.” Calling all of us to what? It’s like the still, small voice that Elijah talks about.
In another time period of great threat to the Jewish people and a seismic shift away from the very things we talk about in the Book of Leviticus, namely animal sacrifice, we learn this story after the destruction of the Temple,
“Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai was once walking with his disciple, Rabbi Yehoshua, near Jerusalem after the destruction of the Temple. Rabbi Yehoshua looked at the Temple ruins and said: Alas for us!! The place that atoned for the sins of the people Israel lies in ruins! Then Rabbi Yochannan ben Zakkai spoke to him these words of comfort: Be not grieved, my son. There is another equally meritorious way of gaining ritual atonement, even though the Temple is destroyed. We can still gain ritual atonement through acts of loving kindness. For it is written (Hoshea 6:6) “Loving kindness I desire, not sacrifice.” (Avot D’Rabbi Natan 4:5 as cited in Siddur Sim Shalom page 68)
Sunday we will read the Megilah. This time the Uncensored Esther. The whole megilah. In English so we really understand it. Will we really understand this short book of 10 chapters that focuses on partying, drinking, sex, power and money? Is it an ancient text or current events? Where or where is G-d?
Rabbi Rachel Barenblatt teaches this:
“But maybe the subtext of the Megillah – the fact that God’s very name is missing – can teach us that a violent counter-response to trauma isn’t the right path. I don’t know how the whole Jewish people could go about the psychological and spiritual work of healing the trauma of being hated, of being attacked, of facing annihilation over and over. But I think that if we can do that work, it will bring us closer to making the divine presence manifest in the sacred text of all creation. (https://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/purim/?fbclid=IwAR2h7XZpc5guvVuRXvZDvQDtJpdygl6Tn3YBruozA_4CQIuXzA7z-0wOE-c)
Would it seem just to totally wipe out Hamas just like Saul was commanded to kill the King of the Amalekites? Maybe. Is it possible? Maybe. But what do we create in its wake? More generations of hatred leading to even more destruction at a later date? That seems to be the message of the 13 Attributes of the Divine. We are to be like G-d, full of lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin. But we can only do that if we feel safe. Today, nobody feels completely safe.
Rising anti-semitism is real. The war in Israel and Gaza is real. Real people are being attacked. Real people have died. We are still here. (most of us) We are still surviving. Why? We, like Esther, must be in this time and place for a reason. Like Esther, find your voice. Speak out. Call your elected officials. Donate to the organizations that are doing the work on the ground. Make plans to visit Israel. Be like Esther. See if you can hear the silent sound of alef and what you are being uniquely called to do.
PS: Imagine my surprise when I got an email from a friend in Israel this weekend telling me that a previous version of my reflections on Amalek got read by an Orthodox shul in Hebrew this Shabbat. This is the one that was cited. https://www.theenergizerrabbi.org/2014/03/17/shabbat-zachor-remembering-amalek-and-moving-onto-purim/?fbclid=IwAR1KcZ-m-M2_kmvMlClCiZaYMCq-ey1y_VH5nsnPQ2TZoCwRejBTuBXowtQ
Even in this time and this place. I hope i brought people some comfort. My friend said this…”Imagine my surprised followed by joy on hearing your name from the bimah.” You never know why I write these..