Amalek

“Zachor Et Asher Asa Lecha Amalek BaDerech Betzetchem MiMitzrayim”

“Remember what Amalek did to you on your way out of Egypt! (Dvarim 25)”

On the Shabbat that precedes Purim, two Torah scrolls are taken from the ark; one for the regular parsha and one for the Maftir – ‘Remember what Amalek did to you’ (Dvarim 25). Because of this reading, it is called, Shabbat Zachor (Remember). The Haftorah also deals with Amalek.

There is a mitzvah in the Torah to remember Amalek and his descendants and to orally recall their iniquity. We are to tell our children in each generation what the people of Amalek did to us during our departure from Egypt. This mitzvah will be fulfilled completely only when we shall have caused Amalek’s memory to perish, and their name to be erased from the world, together with the slightest remnant of anything that bears their name. As the Torah says: ‘Remember what Amalek did to you on the way, upon your departure from Egypt’… ‘You shall erase the memory of Amalek from beneath the heavens, you shall not forget.’ Upon which the Sages have expounded: ‘Remember,’ orally – ‘You shall not forget,’ in your heart.

To properly fulfill this commandment, the Sages have prescribed the public reading of this passage from a Torah scroll, once every year, on the Shabbat which precedes Purim – so that the ‘wiping-out’ of Amalek might be adjacent to the ‘wiping-out’ of Haman, the latter being a descendant of Amalek.

Although this passage is read yearly in the parsha of Ki Tetzeh (which we read towards the end of the summer), we still must read this passage separately in its prescribed time before Purim. This is done in fulfillment of the Torah’s commandment to remember the cowardly attack of Amalek.