Inthis morning’s Breakfast & Class,
we confront one of the Torah’s most difficult questions: Why does Amalek never go away?
Why does the Torah command us not simply to remember what Amalek did, but לֹא תִּשְׁכָּח — never to forget?
And why, after thousands of years, does the hatred represented by Amalek
continue to reappear in different countries, different generations, and under
entirely different disguises? 

Drawing on the insights of Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l, and Rabbi
Adin Steinsaltz z”l, we explore three
remarkable approaches to Amalek: the danger of misplaced compassion, the
difference between hatred that has a reason and hatred that has none, and the
deeper idea that Amalek’s battle is ultimately not only against the Jewish
people, but against what the Jewish people represent. And as antisemitism once
again finds a comfortable home on opposite ends of the political spectrum, the
Torah’s ancient command feels frighteningly contemporary: זָכוֹר — Remember.
Not so that we live with hatred, but so that we recognize it, confront it, and
never allow it to change who we are.