Remember What Amalek Did: The Meaning of a Mitzvah We Must Never Forget

In this week’s parashah, Parashat Ki Teitzei, the Torah gives us a positive commandment: “Remember what Amalek did to you.” This is an ongoing mitzvah that can be fulfilled at any time and in any place: to remember the evil deeds of Amalek.

How is this mitzvah fulfilled? Is it enough simply to remember Amalek in one’s thoughts, or must Amalek’s actions also be mentioned aloud?

The Ramban explains that we are required to remember in our hearts, speak about it with our mouths, and recount what happened to our children and future generations.

He writes: “I have already mentioned the Midrash taught in the Sifra: ‘Could it mean that you should remember in your heart? When the verse says, “You shall not forget,” forgetting in the heart has already been addressed. How, then, do I understand “Remember”? That you should repeat it with your mouth.’ Similarly, the Sifrei teaches: ‘Remember what Amalek did to you’ means with the mouth; ‘You shall not forget’ means in the heart.”

The Ramban continues:

“I do not know precisely what this verbal remembrance entails. Perhaps it means that we are to read the passage of Amalek publicly, as we learn from the Torah regarding the reading of Parashat Zachor.”

The Ramban then offers what he considers the primary explanation:

“What appears correct to me is that we must not forget what Amalek did to us until we erase his name from beneath the heavens. We must recount this to our children and future generations, saying to them: ‘This is what that wicked one did to us, and therefore we were commanded to erase his name.’”

Remembering Amalek for Future Generations

According to the Ramban, the words “Remember what Amalek did to you” teach us that remembering Amalek is not intended to remain a private thought. The memory must be expressed verbally and transmitted from one generation to the next.

We are to tell our children what Amalek did to the Jewish people so that the memory of those actions will never disappear. Each generation must understand why the Torah commands us to remember Amalek and to erase his memory.

In this way, the mitzvah of remembering Amalek becomes more than the preservation of a historical event. It becomes a living memory passed from parents to children and from one generation to the next.

The Ramban’s Comparison to Miriam

The Ramban compares this mitzvah to the Torah’s command to remember what happened to Miriam:

“Similarly, regarding the incident involving Miriam, we were commanded to make it known to our children and to recount it throughout the generations. Although it might have been appropriate to conceal the matter and not speak negatively about the righteous, Scripture nevertheless commanded us to make it known and reveal it, so that the warning against lashon hara would always be on people’s lips, because it is a grave sin that causes great harm and people constantly stumble in it, as our Sages said: ‘Everyone is guilty of some form of avak lashon hara.’”

Miriam was a righteous woman, and under ordinary circumstances we might have expected the Torah to conceal an incident that could reflect negatively upon her. Yet the Torah specifically commands us to remember what happened. Why? Because the lesson is too important to be forgotten.

The same principle applies to Amalek. The Torah does not merely ask us to know what happened. It commands us to preserve the memory, speak about it, and transmit its lesson to those who come after us.

The words “Remember” and “Do not forget” therefore address two dimensions of memory: remembrance in speech and remembrance in the heart. Together, they ensure that the lessons of the past remain alive for generations.