Shabbat Messages

There is a terrifying moment soon after the Israelites leave Egypt. Without warning, a nation called Amalek savagely attacks the newly freed Israelites. The Israelites had just experienced the extraordinary: the plagues upon Egypt, the splitting of the Sea, freedom from oppression for the first time in generations. They were riding high, enthusiastic, and confident! And suddenly, a brutal attack that would haunt not just the Israelites in the wilderness, but the collective Jewish psyche for eternity.

The episode is first introduced in the book of Exodus. But this week’s parsha, Ki Teitzei, ends with an enduring command about that moment: 

Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt. How…he encountered you (karcha) on the way (baderech)… [You] shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget! (Deuteronomy 25:17-19)

There are three powerful commandments in these verses: one - “remember,” two - “blot out,” and three - “do not forget.” The Torah offers no such commandment for any of the other tribes who “encountered” the Israelites during their journey in the wilderness. Nearly 40 years later, as the Israelites are on the precipice of entering the Promised Land, Moses still focuses on that attack from Amalek. And over 3,000 years later, we still heed this command every Purim, because tradition has it that Haman was a descendant of Amalek. So we yell “boo!” every time his name is read from the megillah, verbally blotting out his memory. In fact, these verses from Ki Teitzei are read twice a year: this week during the regular reading for Parashat Ki Teitzei, and again on the Shabbat before Purim. 

The word often translated as "encountered you” in Hebrew is karcha. In the Midrash, the ancient rabbis suggest that we are meant to connect karcha with the Hebrew kar, meaning “cold.” (Pesikta de’Rav Kahana 3:10) With this insight, the rabbis illuminate that Amalek’s sin was more than a purely physical attack; it was a full emotional assault, a chilling of the Israelites’ newly optimistic spirit. For the first time in over 400 years, the Israelite community finally had something about which to feel hopeful. Amalek’s sin against the Israelites was so great because it turned them cold and robbed them of their hope.

The word in our parsha that immediately follows karcha is ba’derech, which means “on your journey.” For the Israelites, the immediate next stop on their journey after the attack from Amalek would be Mt. Sinai, where they would receive the 10 Commandments. A cold, bitter physical and emotional defeat did not mean the Israelites were finished or that their story was over. They continued on their journey, basking in the warmth of hope, faith, and possibility once more.

Ba’derech is the perfect word to describe the moment we are in now in the month of Elul, journeying toward the High Holy Days, on the precipice of entering the New Year. With exactly three (but who’s counting?!) weeks to go until Rosh Hashanah, we would do well to pause before the High Holy Days arrive and think back on our year. 

When was I warm, and when was I cold? 

What were the moments that made me more open and hopeful about the possibilities ahead? What made me more cynical, cold, or afraid?

Ki Teitzei commands us: Zachor - Remember! Remember what has warmed you and what has cooled you, what has strengthened your hope and what has challenged it. And remember, too, that we are all still ba’derech, still on this journey, together. The story is not finished, a New Year lies ahead. May we enter it with a renewed sense of possibility, hope, and warmth. 

Shabbat Shalom, 
Rabbi Leah Fein