Parashat Tetzaveh: The Command to Remember
Jews are a people of memory. We often commemorate events in our past with storytelling, reenactments, and symbolism. Though we are also very present-oriented, we nevertheless are frequently reminded to “remember.” Take a moment and think of some of your favorite Jewish rituals – how many of them center on this concept of remembering? The Passover Seder, the Shabbat candles, the sukkah… each one serves as a reminder of something in our collective past.
Parashat Tetzaveh (Exodus 27:20-30:10) contains a number of rituals and objects whose purpose is to help the user to remember. We learn about the lamps, lit with olive oil, which are supposed to be kindled regularly (eventually leading to our practice of placing a Ner Tamid in our sanctuaries). It is to be a symbol, a reminder, of God’s constant presence. We learn about the two stones which the priests will wear in his shoulder-piece, each of which has the name of 6 of the tribes of Israel. Likewise, we learn about the priest’s breast-piece, which will contain 12 stones, again, for each of the tribes. He is meant to remember for whom he is responsible. We learn about a frontlet that the priest will wear, upon which is engraved the phrase, “Holy to the Eternal.” Each of these components of the official priestly garb serves as an important reminder of an aspect of his role.
This year, Parashat Tetzaveh coincides with the second of our special Shabbatot, Shabbat Zachor (The Shabbat of Remembering). Shabbat Zachor, which immediately precedes the raucous festival of Purim, includes a somber, sobering reminder of our ultimate enemy, Amalek. The Amalekites are the embodiment of pure evil, and they seem to have a permanent goal of destroying us. Thus, we are reminded in an additional text to read this week, Deuteronomy 25:17-19,
Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt—
how, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear.
Therefore, when the ETERNAL your God grants you safety from all your enemies around you, in the land that the ETERNAL your God is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!
Haman (booooooo!!!), the villain of the Book of Esther, is supposedly a descendant of Amalek, and thus the Purim story serves as the perfect time to remember the horrors of Amalek.
The Haftarah for Shabbat Zachor (which supersedes the Haftarah portion for Tetzaveh) is I Samuel 5:2-34. In it, as you might expect, King Saul encounters the Amalekites, and he neglects to destroy them as God has commanded. Thus, he did not remember what we are supposed to do to Amalek, and God was very upset about this.
What role does memory play in your life? In your religious life? How might the insistence on remembering affect how Jews see the world (or even how the world sees us)? And, what about the paradox inherent in the command to remember Amalek until we blot out his memory?
Shabbat shalom, Holy Scrollers!
