Queens Jewish Link
Connecting the Queens Jewish Community It is the beginning of the seven weeks of nechamah. We typically understand nechamah to mean...
Hyper-partisanship has claimed yet another victim – this time a person who – in normal times – would be considered a tzadik, a saintly man. And while the vultures crow over their misbegotten victory, we are all the sadder for it.
Sometimes you wonder what Hashem makes of all this.
Apparently, it is one of the most important mitzvos. There is no other mitzvah for which we have an absolute annual Torah-level obligation to hear directly from the Torah, and one of only six that we are required to think about at least once a day. But frankly, at least from the perspective of Jewish outreach, it is one of the most difficult for us to relate to. We are required to remember what Amaleik did to us as we left Egypt, and therefore never to forget to exterminate the nation of Amaleik from under the Heavens. No matter that according to most poskim the nation of Amaleik no longer exists as a discernible entity, after the extensive transfers of population by Sancheiriv; no matter that in virtually any practical case of meeting an actual Amalekite we would refrain from performing this mitzvah due to the enmity and anti-Semitism it would cause; no matter how difficult this would be for virtually any Jew to perform – the obligation to concentrate on this mitzvah remains in place.
