Zakhor. It means "remember." In the Jewish tradition, memory and remembrance are sacred obligations. It is a "mitzvah" - a commandment - to remember our past. This week's Shabbat bears the special name "Shabbat Zakhor" - the "Sabbath of Remembrance." Along with bearing that name, it also bears the weight of our collective responsibility to remember. What are we "remembering" on Shabbat Zakhor?
On this Shabbat, in addition to the weekly Torah portion, we read three verses from a second Torah scroll. These three verses - Deuteronomy 25:17-19 - begin with the word Zakhor - Remember:
"Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt."
Just as the Jewish people left Egypt, the Amalekites caught us off guard, attacked us and sought to destroy us. Subsequently, the Amalekites became an arch enemy of the Jewish people, their most famous descendant being Haman, the evil perpetrator who sought the first total genocide against the Jewish nation. As an annual prelude to reading the story of Purim in the Book of Esther, we dedicate this special Shabbat of remembrance to contemplating the persistence of Amalek over the generations - from Haman to the Holocaust, from ancient anti-Semitism to the current resurgence of anti-Semitism all over the world.
Rabbi Moshe Malka was born in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco in 1911. In 1929, at the young age of 18, he moved to Rabat, Morocco, where he began his path as a brilliant Hakham. He was a teacher in the Talmud Torah, and eventually became a famous Dayan (rabbinical judge), posek (halakhic decisor) and darshan (public speaker in matters of Torah). He taught in the Rabbinical Beit Midrash (Rabbinical School) in Rabat and was a member of the Bet Din (Rabbinical Court) in Casablanca.
In the wake of the Six Day War in 1967, Rabbi Malka made Aliyah to the State of Israel. He was a deep lover of Israel, believed in modern-day Zionsim, and supported the halakhic position of reciting Hallel (the Psalms of Praise) on Yom Ha'atsmaut (Israel's Independence Day). After living for a while in Jerusalem, Rabbi Malka moved to Petah Tikvah, where he eventually became the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of the city.
Rabbi Malka died on Shabbat Zakhor, March 22, 1997. There is a deep significance to Rabbi Malka's date of passing, for in his teachings throughout his life, he believed very strongly in the mitzvah of "Zakhor" - to remember our past, especially as it relates to when we were persecuted.
Rabbi Malka had no direct family who experienced, died in or survived the Holocaust. But in the spirit of the collective mitzvah of "Zakhor" for all Jews, here is what he said about the Holocaust (this is my direct translation of his words from his book "Pnei Moshe:)":
"There is no precedent in our history for a tragedy like the Holocaust that took place in Europe in our days. No precedent in scope, in size or in magnitude. Its destructive strength wiped entire communities of people, destroyed cities and institutions, glorious communities completely disappeared - men, women, children, all burnt, buried alive, sheer and complete destruction like we have never seen or known.
What's worse is that this awful and tragic episode in our history is disappearing from the world's memory. The plague of forgetting is attacking the younger generations around the world, and life seems to just be resuming 'as if nothing was.' We have reduced the memory of six million Jewish brothers and sisters to one memorial prayer once a year on Yom Hashoah. That's enough to remember this tragedy, and to learn its lessons of history?
True, there have been pogroms in the past, and 'in every generation there are those who seek to destroy us,' but nothing ever like the Holocaust. Nothing as systematic and thought out - laws against us, ghettos, concentration camps, killing fields, and the systematic murder of our people in such large numbers.
It is prohibited for any and every Jew to ever forget what the Nazis - this generation's descendants of Amalek - did to our people. We must never forget, and it must be part of our awareness and consciousness - not only on Yom Hashoah or Shabbat Zakhor - but everyday. Otherwise, we risk handing over the memory of our past into the hands of those in the world who seek to erase our past and our memory of it by denying the Holocaust. It is our sacred duty to remember and never forget the Holocaust."
Rabbi Malka's stirring words serve as one of the best and most potent commentaries to the three verses about "remembering Amalek" that we read this Shabbat Zakhor. His words also remind us that the Holocaust is neither "Ashkenazi" or "Sephardi," rather a collective tragedy that affects all Jews. No matter where we are from in the world, we all share the collective responsibility to remember. On Shabbat Zakhor, the Torah commands us to put aside ethnic differences and remember that we are one people, and that anti-Semitism - including during the Holocaust - does not distinguish between "Sephardi and Ashkenazi." On Shabbat Zakhor, we are all survivors who fulfill the collective mitzvah to remember.
How appropriate that we observe the anio/yahrzeit of Hakham Rabbi Moshe Malka z"l on Shabbat Zakhor. On the Shabbat of Remembrance, the memory of his passing helps us to remember him and his powerful, timeless and unifying message to "remember."
Zakhor - remember.
Shabbat Shalom