Parshat Shabbat Zachor Tzav

 Destroying doubt

Rabbi Pini Hecht

Assistant Rabbi, Marais Rd. Shul, Cape Town

With the media frenzy around the trial of Oscar Pistorius, the news outlets are filled with details, opinions and analyses of a story that has grabbed the attention of our nation and the world.

One of the most dramatic aspects to the trial has been the aggressive questioning of advocate Barry Roux. As he cross-examines each of the state’s witnesses he has put forward alternative scenarios that would explain the voices and noises that the witnesses had heard on that fateful night, sewing doubt in the minds of the public, the judge and even the of the witnesses themselves, as to their version of events that transpired. 

It is clearly part of the defence’s strategy to create doubt where the state prosecution hopes to prove intent beyond a reasonable doubt. By introducing doubt, even the most convincing evidence and testimony can be undermined and broken down.

This Shabbat, the one preceding Purim, we will read Parshat Zachor; it is read as an addendum to the weekly portion of Tzav and in it we read of our obligation to remember Amalek and to eradicate him from this world.

It is appropriately read on this Shabbat as we prepare to celebrate Purim, the day on which we recall the foiling of the plot of Haman the Amalakite to destroy the Jewish people. As appropriate as it may be to the story of Purim, the question of its current relevance remains. With no Amalekite nation around, nor the means to fulfil this obligation, of what relevance is this passage to us?

Our commentaries have noted an anomaly in the passage. The verse states: “You shall wipe out the memory of Amalek from under the Heavens.”

Would it not have been more sensible to say “from the face of the Earth”, rather than “from under the Heavens”?

Heaven and Earth understood metaphorically, represent the spiritual and the G-dly and the mundane and the material respectively, and with this in mind we find an insight into this passage with an eternally relevant personal message.

It was Amalek’s aim to create a chasm in the relationship between the Jew and Hashem, placing a wedge between the Jew below and our Father in Heaven.

It is fascinating to note that the numerical value of the Hebrew word “Amalek” is 240, the same as the Hebrew word for “doubt” – “Safek”.

“Asher Karcha Baderech” – “how he happened upon you on the way”, is how the Torah describes Amalek’s attack on the recently emancipated Jewish nation. The word “Karcha” – “happened upon you” – has the same root as the word “Kerirut” – “to cool down”.

By attacking the fledgling Jewish nation, a nation enthused and excited by their miraculous salvation, Amalek was attempting to introduce “doubt” into their belief in the Divine source of these miracles and thus “cool down” their faith in, and their enthusiasm towards, Hashem.

Doubt then, is the manifestation of Amalek that threatens to break down the faith and commitment of a Jew; it inserts a wedge between the individual below and Hashem above. Wiping out the memory of Amalek from under the Heavens is to remove completely any such obstruction.