On enemies and Purim
Last Shabbat we read a special maftir, out of a second Torah. (Maftir is a short paragraph read at the end of the Torah reading service on Shabbat, and is usually a repeat of the last bit of the week's portion.) It was Amalek. "Remember what the Amalek did to you*," It starts out, and then goes on about how they attacked the Israelites on their way out of Egypt, how they didn't fight fair and killed the weak first. Then it takes on the imperative (the tense for commands) and tells the reader to "Stamp out the remembering of Amalek from under the sky. Do not forget." Sounds a little self-contradictory. Don't remember, don't forget?
Hold that thought.
Proverbs 24:17 gives this advice: "When your enemy falls, don't be happy. When he stumbles, don't be pleased in your heart." Sounds good so far.
Hold that thought.
Now about Purim. The basic idea is that Haman is a total bad guy, an enemy. Rabbinic tradition is that Haman was a decedent of Amalek. (This is in keeping with the "conservation of characters" principle whereby the Rabbis want to keep everyone in similar roles as the same person, or at least related in some way.) Ok. But then comes the end of the story. Mordechai declares that the Jews can kill all they want to on the day that Haman had designated for them to be killed. They do so. They kill a lot of people. Then the king says he can do anything he wants, and so Mordechai declares the next day a killing spree as well. Then the Jews rejoice, and everyone else is afraid of them. Um, yay? Yay, apparently. Mordechai declares the day a holiday, one of doing things that have nothing to do with the story, such as giving gifts to the poor. (A good thing to do, btw, I'm just not seeing the relevance.)
Hold that thought.
Go back to the first thought. What does it mean to "stamp out the remembering" and also "not forget?" We aren't supposed to just not remember Amalek. Stamping out is really a violent action, not a simple putting aside of memories. Plus, it says right there "Do not forget." (I'm going to leave unexamined the various ways in which this order was interpreted in Prophets, because after all, who knows if they did it right?) What I want to know is, how do you stamp out a remembering? You can kill the people. Yes, you can kill the people, but the people aren't what God says we should stamp out.
Now think of thoughts 2&3 together. We celebrate because an enemy has been taken down? Wait, aren't we supposed to avoid that? On the other hand, we were supposed to stamp out something, right? And we did kill a lot of people, probably (though maybe not) all enemies, probably (though maybe not) even Amalek. And fulfilling a commandment is a good reason to celebrate, right? And yet.
I'm left with this question. What exactly are we supposed to stamp out? How?
*Translations my own.
Hold that thought.
Proverbs 24:17 gives this advice: "When your enemy falls, don't be happy. When he stumbles, don't be pleased in your heart." Sounds good so far.
Hold that thought.
Now about Purim. The basic idea is that Haman is a total bad guy, an enemy. Rabbinic tradition is that Haman was a decedent of Amalek. (This is in keeping with the "conservation of characters" principle whereby the Rabbis want to keep everyone in similar roles as the same person, or at least related in some way.) Ok. But then comes the end of the story. Mordechai declares that the Jews can kill all they want to on the day that Haman had designated for them to be killed. They do so. They kill a lot of people. Then the king says he can do anything he wants, and so Mordechai declares the next day a killing spree as well. Then the Jews rejoice, and everyone else is afraid of them. Um, yay? Yay, apparently. Mordechai declares the day a holiday, one of doing things that have nothing to do with the story, such as giving gifts to the poor. (A good thing to do, btw, I'm just not seeing the relevance.)
Hold that thought.
Go back to the first thought. What does it mean to "stamp out the remembering" and also "not forget?" We aren't supposed to just not remember Amalek. Stamping out is really a violent action, not a simple putting aside of memories. Plus, it says right there "Do not forget." (I'm going to leave unexamined the various ways in which this order was interpreted in Prophets, because after all, who knows if they did it right?) What I want to know is, how do you stamp out a remembering? You can kill the people. Yes, you can kill the people, but the people aren't what God says we should stamp out.
Now think of thoughts 2&3 together. We celebrate because an enemy has been taken down? Wait, aren't we supposed to avoid that? On the other hand, we were supposed to stamp out something, right? And we did kill a lot of people, probably (though maybe not) all enemies, probably (though maybe not) even Amalek. And fulfilling a commandment is a good reason to celebrate, right? And yet.
I'm left with this question. What exactly are we supposed to stamp out? How?
*Translations my own.