Titzaveh - Zachor:the near and the far

This week there is a juxtaposition of portions of the Torah: Titzaveh is one those parshioth that I have trouble relating to.  Most of it involves the clothing and investiture  of the Cohanim. The addendum, Zachor, read on the Shabbath before Purim, instructs us to always remember, and never forget, the treachery of Amalek.  Amalek is the eternal Antisemite  The Nazis were Amalek.  There is no portion of the Torah that I relate to more closely than remembering Amalek, remembering the Nazi holocaust.  

Two books I have recently opened: Moonglow by Michael Chabon and Here I Am by Jonathan Safron Foer  inform me that I am not alone in this attachment to Judaism and , even belief in Gd , through the Holocaust. The ancestral characters in both of these recent American Jewish books do the same. 

 

The focused, irrational destruction of my ancestors and relatives  is a revelation.  It is an affirmation of their specialness.  How else could the most  advanced nation on earth, the land that incubated Einstein and Planck, the land of Goethe and Heine, Beilstein and Haber,  Beethoven and Mahler; how could these people feel so threatened that they could  murder a million children because they were born to Jews? Does that not prove the special relationship between Gd and the Jews? 

What other people would maintain their relationship  with a Gd that allows their decimation?  Remembering Amalek reminds us that Gd allows our defeat, as well as our victory.  Israel prevailed only when Moshe's hands, supported by Aaron and Hur, were raised

Titzaveh describes the vestments of the High Priest.  The tribes of Israel are inscribed into the precious stones on his shoulders.  The tribes of Israel are represented on the breastplate.  The High priest is the delegate of all Israel to the Divine.  He and his actions unify the people...as long as there was a sanctuary.  The sanctuary long gone, we still read the chapter, try to imagine the splendor, the embodiment of the relationship of a unified Israel  with Gd. 

Remembering Amalek is our current collective memory.  It binds us as a people,  It binds us to all  persecuted peoples.  It binds us to erase the behaviors of the persecutor.

  Remember.  Don't forget.