Lead Tidbit
ZACHOR and the Holocaust
It should not escape our notice that the dedication of the new Holocaust museum at Yad Vashem took place during the week of Shabbat Parshat Zachor. Nor should we ignore the many world leaders and other representatives who descended upon Jerusalem (causing traffic jams) for the occasion. [Do not read anything negative in the traffic jam comment - just venting for the traffic messes in the Center area during the last several days.]

The link of Amalek to Haman to the Nazis does not require any leaps of imagination. One of the hallmarks of Amalek is their desire to destroy the people of Israel, just because we exist. Just because we are different. Just because. Haman had a complaint about one person who refused to bow to him. When he saw Mordechai, he was filled with rage. He desired, tells us the Megila, to destroy every man, woman, and child of Mordechai's nation - because they (the people in Achashveirosh's court) told him (Haman) that Mordechai was a Jew. Hitler sought the Final Solution - a very similar plan to Haman's and to Amalek's. (Tragically, Hitler was far more successful in his plan than his predecessors.)

The mitzvot to Remember and Never to Forget apply to Amalek and to his descendants - actual and figurative. One need not draw a family tree to realize that the Nazis were the heirs of Amalek, as are neo-Nazis and others in our own time. This is part of the Torah's reference to "a war against Amalek MIDOR DOR", from generation to generation.

The mitzva of ZACHOR is defined as a yearly public Torah reading of the "portion of Amalek". It is yearly because the gemara teaches us that memories fade in a year's time. Annual reminders keep the memories alive.

The command of LO TISHKACH, thou shalt not forget, is constant, TAMID. The most recent example of that which exists in order to facilitate our LO TISHKACH and that of the world, is the new Yad Vashem museum. Remember Amalek and all they epitomize.