Weekly D'var Torah

The Shabbat before Purim is marked by the reading of the passage
relating to the nation of Amalek, the nation of Haman:

Remember what Amalek did to you as you left Egypt, came upon you on the journey, and, without regard slaughtered those weakened and lagging behind.  When you have come into the Land that G-d is giving you and gives you respite from your enemies all around, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek- do not forget.

Who was Amalek? 
According to the Midrash, Esau’s son, Eliphaz, was sent by his father to track down the fleeing Jacob and to kill him as he sought to escape his brother’s wrath after taking the blessing of the first born.
 
When Eliphaz caught up with Jacob and told him that his father had charged him to kill him, Jacob confronted Eliphaz. You are my nephew, he said to him.  You were raised on the knees of your grandfather, Isaac. Can you really kill me, your uncle? Eliphaz cannot go through with his father’s horrific command. Jacob advises Eliphaz to take all of Jacob's animals, food and supplies so that he, Jacob can go alone into the wilderness.  The Torah says that impoverishment is like death: so Eliphaz can then fulfill the will of his father Esau without shedding any blood. That is why Jacob arrives in Haran to the house of his mother Rebekah’s brother, Lavan, with nothing.  So Eliphaz returns to his father with all of Jacob’s supplies, animals and food.  But Esau is not appeased.  Because you failed to bring me Jacob’s head, he says, you are excommunicated from the family.  Rather than blaming his father for his disgrace, Eliphaz blames his uncle Jacob and teaches his child Amalek that Jacob and his family are the ultimate evil, dispossessing his grandfather Esau of his birthright and causing his father to lose his place in the family. 
 
Even when Esau makes peace with Jacob years later, and even when Eliphaz is brought back to the family, Amalek, raised on and defined by hatred, continues to hold his grudge and grievance.  The family, clan and finally nation - for all of Abraham’s descendants are patriarchs of nations - called by the name of Amalek have only one characteristic: eternal murderous hatred for the family of Israel.
 
The Talmud teaches that aside from Israel, all of the nations of antiquity were mixed up and abolished by Sennacheriv, the conquering emperor of Assyria with his policy of exiling and scattering subjugated peoples. So even now, when there is no more nation of Amelek, the hatred of Amalek endures.  The Torah doesn’t command us to harm Amalek but rather to erase the remembrance of Amalek- what is that remembrance?  It must be hatred, for hatred is the only patrimony of Amalek. 
 
Judaism’s radical idea that not only must we refrain from hate, but that we should try, through empathy, compassion and dialogue, to resolve and pre-empt hate, is one of our most powerful teachings.  Even when we pray in the Amidah for the downfall of Israel’s enemies, we pray not that others should suffer - but rather that the hatred that possesses them disperse like smoke.  The ability to see evil as an entity separate from the person is the essence of the commandment to erase Amalek. 
 
Part of the Torah’s commandment to love the stranger, to share your table at Passover with others may come not only from the commandment to love each other, but also perhaps from the desire to build connections, to transform the strange and foreign into the familiar, to see and honor the divine image in everyone.