Roger Froikin @rlefraim wrote, "This parsha is usually read in the month of Adar, before the holiday of Purim, but current events have convinced me that it needs to be published widely now.
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I admit I have a special connection as this was what I read on my Bar Mitzvah 1000’s of years ago.
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Parshat Zachor Haftorah
I Samuel 15:2-34.
This week's special haftorah discusses G-d's command to destroy the people of Amaleq. This to avenge Amaleq's unprovoked attack on the Israelites that is described in the Zachor Torah reading.
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I Samuel 15:2-34.
This week's special haftorah discusses G-d's command to destroy the people of Amaleq. This to avenge Amaleq's unprovoked attack on the Israelites that is described in the Zachor Torah reading.
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What did Amaleq do? They sent in armed men to murder innocent Jewish civilians, 1000’s killed, many women raped brutally, children murdered and cut up and burned to deal alive, hostages taken and tortured and then killed.
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Samuel tells King Saul of G-d’s order to not tolerate a nation that acts so cruel against Yisrael and to go and battle against the Amaleq, to leave no survivors—neither human or animals, and to take no spoils of any kind.
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Yisrael was not to benefit from doing what had to be done other than eliminating an existential threat. So Saul mobilizes the military and attacks Amaleq.
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They kill the entire population but Saul chooses to make a deal with the Amaleq King and allows his family and associates to live as well as their wealth of cattle and sheep and goats.
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Samuel is disgusted and says he regrets appointing such a weak king that cannot follow through to prevent the enemy from being revived in the future.
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Saul defends himself, claiming that he brought peace for now, limited casualties, and that he saved the animals that can be used for sacrifices that HaShem will like.
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But Samuel brushes off the King's excuses. He tells him that because he rejected the will of HaShem, he also will lose his favor and approval.
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There is a lesson in this that applies forever.
Torah and Tanakh are not just nice stories. They are instruction—in good and bad, realistic and unrealistic, what works and what appears to work but never does.
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Torah and Tanakh are not just nice stories. They are instruction—in good and bad, realistic and unrealistic, what works and what appears to work but never does.
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Parshat Zachor is about recognizing what should be done, by all logic, sense, and moral standards, and yet how some do choose to not finish the job, allowing emotion, and sometimes even the best intentions, interfere in what, in the long run, is the best choice.
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The lesson is that one cannot make deals with a people that thinks burning babies alive, raping young girls and taking hostages is the way to wage war. One cannot make compromises that allow them to live to repeat another day.
I hope we all can understand that."
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I hope we all can understand that."
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