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 Torah Thoughts
Parashat Zachor
Maftir- Parshat Zachor
The
following section is read on the Shabbat before Purim in fulfillment
of the command to remember Amalek’s deeds. This is
an appropriate time since the story of Purim was another episode in our
ongoing struggle against Amalek.
Deuteronomy
25:17-19 The Jewish People are
commanded to remember the dastardly attack by the primeval terrorists, Amalek. This nation is evil incarnate. They ambushed the
weak stragglers at the rear of the Israelite camp and defied G-d.
Upon
entering the land
of Israel, we are
adjured to destroy Amalek, thus concluding the epic
struggle against evil.
Haftara
I Samuel 15:1-34 As king of Israel, Saul was charged with waging war
against Israel’s
nemesis, Amalek. His mission was to utterly destroy
that nation, including its property, and to kill the king, Agag. Unfortunately, Saul, heeding the will of the
people, disobeyed and spared the best of the property and had mercy on King Agag. The prophet Samuel was informed by G-d that for
this dereliction, Saul forfeited his kingship.
Saul’s misplaced compassion for Agag
facilitated the ultimate rise to power of his descendant, Haman, centuries
later in Persia.
The Jewish people were a vulnerable minority dispersed in the Persian empire. Haman was in a position to engineer the
genocide of the Jews. Through a series of apparently haphazard events,
Mordecai and Esther were able to outmaneuver Haman who was ultimately hoisted
with his own petard. Thus, the descendant of the wicked Agag
was destroyed by Mordecai and Esther, rectifying the failure of their
progenitor, Saul.
Our Sages teach us that misplaced compassion is in
fact cruelty. Sparing evildoers who wish to destroy our society will
bring about untold suffering. This is a vital lesson for our modern society
that faces a brutal, barbaric and merciless enemy whose tentacles reach
around the world and whose mission is to destroy Israel and western civilization.
If those in power show misplaced compassion to terrorists and their
paymasters, if they fail to confront the killers with all the force at their
disposal, our civilization faces dire consequences. Moral clarity and the
recognition and destruction of evil, is the cocoon that allows moral, just
and free societies to develop and flourish.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Baruch Price
Technical
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