Rabbi Rael Blumenthal

Without doubt, we are living in a new golden age of kids' cartoons. When I think back on my own childhood, and the shows we used to watch, I can confidently say that my kids have it better.

This is not a blanket statement; there are still plenty of shows that dangerous, destructive or just plain stupid. But if you’re looking for quality, there are some great options. Shows like Daniel Tiger teach good middos in a fun and friendly way. Bluey has given my kids ideas for games, and demonstrated how to deal with conflict and disappointment. These are wonderful lessons.

(As an aside, perhaps one of the best things to happen to kids TV, is the possibility of avoiding the incessant barrage of advertisements. Today, we have the choice to stream exactly what we want to show, and nothing more.)

Now, in the interest of clarity and full disclosure, I am not advocating for any screen time at all. I am and certainly not in favor of the immense volumes of TV watching that most kids engage in nowadays. But if any TV watching occurs at all, I am grateful that the options we have to choose from are healthier and more wholesome than in the past few decades.

Today’s shows tell stories of tough situations and explore complex emotions. The resolutions of those situations almost always involves empathy, understanding and sensitivity. This is all good, and it’s welcome change from the bland and shallow stories that cartoons used to tell.

But with all of that noted, there is something missing from the safe and colorful entertainment of today: There are no bad guys.

In the interest of demonstrating positivity, we seem to have dismissed the idea that some people, and some actions are wrong. Not simply misunderstood, but wrong.

Even in the more mature and complex world of superheroes, we have learned that villains have backstories; that they are victims of abuse, of bullying and loneliness.

These stories resonate with us today because we want to believe that deep down, people are always good-hearted. We want to believe that that no person truly chooses to be evil.

But this is only partially true.

The circumstances we are born into do indeed shape our perspective. They limit our options and change the way we think about the world. But there is nothing in the world that can force a person to choose to become evil. That is always a choice. And throughout human history, there have been people that have made such choices.

To that end, the Rambam write that the reason we are commanded to read Parshas Zachor this Shabbos is:

וּמִצְוַת עֲשֵׂה לִזְכֹּר תָּמִיד מַעֲשָׂיו הָרָעִים וַאֲרִיבָתוֹ. כְּדֵי לְעוֹרֵר אֵיבָתוֹ. It is a positive commandment to constantly remember their evil deeds and their ambush of Israel to arouse our hatred of them.

We recognize the actions of Amalek is evil, an worthy to be despised.

The Sefer HaChinuch adds that we must be reminded of Amalek: פֶּן תֶּחֱלַשׁ אֵיבָתוֹ וְתֶחְסַר מֵהַלְּבָבוֹת בְּאֹרֶךְ הַזְּמַנִּים – lest the enmity be weakened and be removed from the hearts over the length of time.

The nature of the Jewish people is to see the good in everyone and everything. We are predisposed to forgiving and forgetting, as Chazal explain:

שְׁלֹשָׁה סִימָנִים יֵשׁ בְּאוּמָּה זוֹ: הָרַחְמָנִים, וְהַבַּיְישָׁנִין, וְגוֹמְלֵי חֲסָדִים.

There are three distinguishing marks of the Jewish people. They are merciful, they are bashful, and they perform acts of kindness.

We’re not people who like holding a grudge. Our greatest leaders are teachers; not our warriors. We are the nation that champions the voice of Yaakov, not the hands of Esav.

But if Hashem has to demand from us “Destroy all memory of Amalek. Never forget,” it means that we have more than a tendency to move on. We have a Yetzer Hara to ignore Amalek and forget what he did.

This Yetzer Hara is subtle, complex and devastatingly dangerous: The reason we’d like to forget Amalek is because we understand them.

We do not dismiss Amalek as a psychopath. On the contrary, Chazal (סנהדרין צ”ט ב) provide us with a heartbreaking background story for Amalek:

Timna, the daughter of Lotan sought to convert. She came before Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they did not accept her. She went and became a concubine of Eliphaz, son of Esau, and said, referring to herself: It is preferable that she will be a maidservant for this nation, and she will not be a noblewoman for another nation. Ultimately, Amalek, son of Eliphaz, emerged from her, and that tribe afflicted the Jewish people. What is the reason that the Jewish people were punished by suffering at the hand of Amalek? It is due to the fact that they should not have rejected her when she sought to convert.

The Chizkuni (שמות יז:ח) further explains Amalek’s vendetta against our ancestors:

וילחם עם ישראל מפני שנאת מכירת הבכורה – He went to fight the Jewish nation due to the hated he harbored from Esav’s sale of his birthright.

Amalek felt cheated and rejected. He carried the generational pain of his grandfather Esav, and his mother Timna. He had good reason to resent the Jewish people!

And yet, despite all of this, when Amalek led his army to attack the nascent Jewish nation who had just escaped Egyptian slavery. He became a murderer.

Our obligation to destroy Amalek is not to eradicate some unimaginable and incomprehensible evil. It is to acknowledge and understand that Amalek might well have been a victim of rejection, failure and loneliness, and that our ancestors might have played a part in that! But even if all that is true, there is nothing that can excuse his choice to become evil.

The profundity of this understanding is instrumental in our current battle against Hamas and their supporters. It allows us to accept that the residents of Gaza are victims. They are victims of Hamas who uses them as human shields, of the UN who is insistent on keeping them as refugees, and of the Arab world who refuses to help them. They are also, in part, victims of Israel who has destroyed their homes and threatens their safety.

We can all acknowledge that their lives are terrible. And yet they are still responsible for the choices that they made to elect Hamas, and participate in the murder, rape and kidnapping of innocent civilians; men, women and children.

Growing up in a painful world does not grant moral license to become a monster. If it did, then the Jewish people should be excused from everything, for all time.

This understanding is true in our national fight against evil, but it is just as important in our internal Milchemes HaYetzer – the fight against our evil inclination. In both cases, we are tempted to make excuses.

All too often, we feel the urge to rationalize our own failures and justify our flaws. After all, we didn’t choose to be in these situations! But the mitzvah of remembering Amalek teaches us that while our circumstances may not be of our own making, our choices most certainly still are.

Torah commands us: It might not be your fault, but it’s still your responsibility.

In the deepest way, this is why Amalek is described as “Happening along the way”. They represent the ideology that humanity is never in control, that we are all always excused as victims of our circumstances. Klal Yisrael represents the opposite. We can always choose to live with morality and integrity; regardless of what might be happening to us and around us.

The mitzvah of this Shabbos is to fight that Yetzer Hara and eradicate it. To commit to an understanding that people can and do choose to be the bad guys.

It’s our obligation to choose Good.