Remember + forget

D’var Torah from February 27, 2026

Shabbat Zachor

Part 1: Contradictions

Recently, I’ve been noticing I have a lot of contradictions inside of me.

I want to hide and I want to be seen.

I am filled with despair and I am filled with love.

I want to accept what is and I need things to change.

I need to take care of myself and I want to take care of us.

I feel everything so much and I don’t feel anything at all.

Contradictions - thank God - are well documented in our tradition.

Judaism knows that it is not strange at all for two opposite things to be true at the same time.

Part 2: Shabbat Zachor

This shabbat, the shabbat before Purim, is Shabbat Zachor, Shabbat of Remembrance.

What are we remembering and why?

On Tuesday, we will celebrate the holiday of Purim. The story of Purim is about how Esther saved the Jewish people from the evil plots of Haman, the King’s right hand man. In simple terms, Haman is a power-hungry, murderous abuser. Esther is a creative, compassionate, and brilliant heroine.

However, the Purim story is really part 2 in a series. What we need to remember this shabbat is part 1.

In Part 1, the Israelites have just made it out of slavery in Egypt, by a miracle of God. We enter the desert, vulnerable and afraid. Immediately, we are attacked. A people known as Amalek ambushes us from behind, targeting our most weak and weary travelers. We make it out of the fight, but we are forever changed.

Amalek shows up symbolically over and over again in our history. Amalek, the nation that attacked us from the back, not Egypt, who enslaved us for 400 years, becomes our mythic enemy. Thus, when Haman comes on the scene, he is nothing less than an Amelakite.

Shabbat Zachor, this shabbat, comes to say “remember Part 1 of the Purim story”, the origin of our conflict with Haman, way back in the desert with Amalek.

Part 3: Remember + forget

In our maftir aliyah (the final torah reading tomorrow morning), we read:

“Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt. How, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear. Therefore, when Hashem your God grants you safety from all your enemies around you, in the land that Hashem your God is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory (the zachor) of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!”

Does anything strike you about this?

Remember and forget (erase) and do not forget.

Remember and forget, remember and forget.

Part 4: Remembering + forgetting

The contradiction here is - dare I say - on purpose.

We can’t let it go and we can’t think about it.

We cannot constantly relive this betrayal and we cannot allow it to disappear either.

There is something here - something about how to engage with the past

We need to remember how Amalek stabbed us in the back - the pain it caused, the heartlessness.

We also need to forget. To break our hold on the rage and the memory of the suffering.

Part 5: Divert + speak

In Proverbs, we learn “When [there is] worry in a person’s heart, she should divert [her attention]”.

Maybe this is advice you’ve received once or twice. “Try not to think so hard about it.” “Don’t worry so much.” “Thinking about it only makes it worse.”

The Rabbis explain that the Hebrew word translated as “divert” - “yashchena” suggests a similar word “yesichena” - which means speak of it. Thus, they interpret the verse “If there is worry in a person’s heart, let her speak of it." (Yoma 75a)

What a beautiful lesson baked into our tradition.

First, the advice given by proverbs: ignore your turmoil.

Then, the exact opposite advice given by the rabbis but through the exact same word: speak of your troubles

The rabbis, here, using their creative power to directly contradict the source text. They illuminate the opposing forces that we experience when we worry - I want to hide and I want to be seen.

Divert + Speak

Remember + Forget

Part 6: The middle way

I won't lie to you, the oscillation of life’s truths is a challenge.

As we say on Purim, va’nafochu hu, and it was flipped upside down.

The rollercoaster has us feeling a bit loopy.

But as we oscillate, we also pass through balance.

We experience, even for a split second, the middle ground.

In his Mishneh Torah, Maimonides, our great Sephardi 12th century teacher, explores “the middle way” as a place where we can be whole.

The path of life is to try our best not to squash one part of ourselves for the sake of another.

To honor both the desire to divert and to speak.

Both the need to remember and forget.

Part 7: Closing

It is hard to hold divergence.

May we know it is absolutely correct to be full of contradictions.

May we see that balance does not always mean staying still, but rather honoring every extreme in our hearts.

It is such that God made us.