Zechiras Amalek: Always Remember that Our Choices Count

The Rambam me-Hilchos Melachim

וכן מצות עשה לאבד זרע עמלק שנאמר תמחה זכר עמלק ומצות עשה לזכור תמיד מעשיו הרעים ואריבתו בדרך

kedei le-orer eivaso

שנאמר זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק מפי השמועה למדו זכור בפה

lo tishkach ba-leiv שאסור לשכוח איבתו ושנאתו. So the Rambam says that the de'oraisa of zechiros Amalek is lizkor tamid. How does he know that it's tamid? How does he know that it's tamid? Maybe maybe like Rashi, Rashi comments on זכור את יום השבת לקדשו the difference between zachor with a kamatz, zachor with a sheva is that zachor is something which is ongoing. Zachor means a sort of an isolated moment and zachor means the literal translation is to be remembering, to have a consciousness of, to always be aware of. And that's what Rashi says about זכור את יום השבת לקדשו that even on Yom Rishon ba-Shabbos a person is mindful and conscious of Shabbos that if he finds a something appropriate for Shabbos she-yehei mazmino le-Shabbos etc. So itachen that the Rambam also that the Rambam's mekor is from the zachor as opposed to zachor. Not sure if you find that in Hilchos Shabbos though in terms of זכור את יום השבת. Alternately or additionally maybe the Rambam gets it from the following. The Ramban also quotes this derashas Chazal of

יכול בלבך כשאמר לא תשכח הרי שכחת הלב אמורה ומה אני מקיים זכור שתהא שונה בפיך זכור בפה לא תשכח בלב.

And then the Ramban says ולא ידעתי מה היא הזכירה הזו בפה. Meaning Chazal are clearly saying that zechira ba-peh represents something very distinct from avoiding shikchas ha-leiv. So clearly it doesn't just mean saying words and that's what the Ramban says lo yadati. What do they have in mind? And he goes on to suggest maybe it means to read it be-tzibur and the peshat that he's more inclined to ve-hanachon be-einai that zechira ba-peh means to transmit to the next generation that נספר זה לבנינו ולדורותינו. itachen that the Rambam is relating to that same question of what is this zechira ba-peh that Chazal are telling us is so distinct from avoiding shikchas ha-leiv. And the Rambam answers as follows. There are lots of things that we haven't forgotten that we're not constantly mindful of or conscious of. If someone asks you what you ate for breakfast this morning chances are even though it probably wasn't that memorable but that you still remember but it doesn't mean that all day long you've been thinking about those Cheerios you know be-stama be-stama not. So a person can be mekayem lo tishkach but that doesn't mean that there's a consciousness of it. Oh so that's what the zechira ba-peh, if something's if something's on the tip of my tongue, if something is always something that I'm talking about so that means that it's a higher level, it's not only that one is avoiding the shikcha but there's a zechira temidis. Maybe. Either way however the Rambam arrives at the conclusion the definition of the mitzvah is lizkor tamid. So let's let's try בעזרת השם בלי נדר to discuss the. The significance of that al derech agadah in the realm of machshavah that the mitzvah of zechiras ma'aseh Amalek is lizkor tamid.

זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק בדרך בצאתכם ממצרים אשר קרך בדרך.

The Torah provides lots of details. The timing, the circumstances. I don't know, someone tries to kill you, nafka mina exactly whether he tried to kill you on Monday or Tuesday. Some of the zechirah focuses on what he did. The timing doesn't seem to be so relevant. The circumstances don't seem so relevant. So the Malbim explains, he writes it initially in Parshas Beshalach and then reproduces it here in Parshas Ki Seitzei as well.

שמלחמת עמלק לא היה לו שום סיבה מהסיבות שבעבורה ילחם עם בעם ממלכה בממלכה.

None of the understandable motives or incentives existed for Amalek to wage war against Bnei Yisrael. Sometimes one country wants to, they want to enlarge their own country, they want to become an empire, so they attack another country because they want to conquer the land. Uvaderech betzeischem miMitzrayim, we didn't have anything. And the Malbim goes on to explain that's what each of these details. Sometimes they're afraid that it's a preemptive strike because they're afraid that this nation is going to attack them. No, uvaderech betzeischem miMitzrayim, you weren't anywhere near Amalek, you weren't threatening them. Or in other words, Amalek's attack was pure evil. Pure evil. There wasn't even, again, there was no self-interest that animated it. It was evil for the sake of evil. And while obviously on the level of halacha, the content of the mitzvah is זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק, to remember historically the events that happened, but on another level, mitzvas zechiras Amalek is to be aware that there's evil in the world. To be aware of metzius hara, that there's evil, that there are evil agents in the world, there are evil people in the world, there are evil nations in the world. But let's go a little further. This undeniable reality of evil in the world is difficult to understand philosophically. The beriah is Hakadosh Baruch Hu's beriah. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is kulo tov. Nothing can exist, everything that exists is because Hakadosh Baruch Hu willed it into existence. So how do we understand the existence of evil? So this is a question that you know חכמים רבים תלויים בה but we'll try to understand a little bit simply, hopefully not overly simplistically. When the Rambam talks about bechirah, how adam has bechirah, so the Rambam says ve'al tisma vetomar maybe you'll be confused and you'll say

היך יהיה האדם עושה כל מה שיחפוץ ויהיו מעשיו מסורין לו?

How is it possible to maintain that we have bechirah? וכי יעשה בעולם דבר שלא ברשות קונו ובלא חפצו? Can anything happen in the world which doesn't reflect ratzon Hashem? Isn't that the source of existence? והכתוב אומר כל אשר חפץ ה' עשה בשמים ובארץ. Da says the Rambam shehakol becheftzo yai'aseh ואף על פי שמעשינו מסורין לנו. Keitzad?

כשם שחפץ היוצר להיות האש והרוח עולים למעלה והמים והארץ יורדים למטה והגלגל סובב בעיגול וכן שאר בריות העולם להיות כמנהגן שחפץ בו.

So just as Hakadosh Baruch Hu willed and that ratzon persists that the law of gravity says that things should fall down towards the earth that the planets orbit the sun and all that exists as it does and those laws of physics hold firm because that is ratzon Hashem, right? Kach chafetz hayotzer. כך חפץ להיות האדם רשותו בידו. Hakadosh Baruch Hu wills that in his briyah, in the hakdamah leperush hamishnayos the Rambam would say at the pinnacle of his briyah should be adam who's a ba'al bechirah and whose bechirah is consequential. That's what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wills. Meshech Chochmah says that that's what it means that we're betzelem Elokim that we have bechirah and that our bechirah is consequential. And all that is is betachlis hatov to create such a world is betachlis hatov to create a world in which there's a briyah of adam who's betzelem Elokim who has bechirah and whose bechirah is consequential, whose bechirah is impactful. When the Torah mentions ra, the Torah mentions ra in conjunction with bechiras adam. The Torah tells us that there was עץ הדעת טוב ורע and then the Torah follows that up that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives the tzivui to adam.

ומעץ הדעת טוב ורע לא תאכל ממנו והנה נתתי לפניך היום את החיים ואת הטוב את המות ואת הרע ובחרת בחיים.

The possibility, and then because we misuse, we abuse our bechira, it becomes a reality, but the possibility and subsequent reality of ra is a corollary to the fact that Adam has bechira. And that's how, that's how there is, it's it's the tov of Hakadosh Boruch Hu creating Adam as a baal bechira, which we distort and abuse, and and that's how ra comes about. That's how ra exists. At at every, virtually at every waking moment of a person's life, he's acting as a baal bechira. The Torah says, again on the level of agada, on the level of machshava, that the mitzvah is לזכור תמיד מעשה עמלק. A person should know at every moment when he has the privilege and responsibility, two sides of a coin, when he has the privilege and responsibility of exercising bechira, what's at stake in his exercising the bechira. A person should remember there's a metzius of ra in the world, and that metzius of ra is the result of misdirected bechira, of the wrong bechira. By remembering maasei Amaleik, so a person is reminded that his choices are consequential, that his choices count, and that each one of us individually and then all of us collectively are responsible for whether or not Hakadosh Boruch Hu's world is a world which overflows with tov or rachmana litzlan the alternative. That's something that we should always be aware of. We should never think that that our bechira is mah bichach, that that it's, that it's unimportant, that it's inconsequential. That's something a person has to remember tamid, the potential that exists as we we exercise our bechira.