Rabbi Daniel Siegel – Head of Jewish Life

Remember to erase the memory

This week’s parashah is named after the rebellious leader Korach. He and his cohort of “uprisers” are quickly joined by a larger group described as אנשי שם/anshei shem -“people of name”, that is, renowned individuals. The entire band, just as quickly, meets its demise, with Korach and his mates swallowed up by the ground and one would think by history itself. Curiously, however, the very parashah in which he is made to vanish preserves his name and memory.

Similarly, two parshiyot later we encounter Balak, king of Moav, who seeks to destroy Israel through the agency of the diviner Bil’am (whose name connotes “swallowing up”). Here too, the villain, Balak, is memorialised, as the parashah bears his name.

Perhaps the best known example, within our Jewish tradition, of preserving one’s name and memory by the very means we seek to obliterate it is Haman. In mentioning Haman, we are required to add the words ימח שמו/yimach shamo -“may his name be obliterated”. Accordingly, in reading the Megillah, we noisily drown out his name every time it is “heard” or put his name on the soles of our shoes to stomp it out. Yet, this has served to make Haman and his name most memorable.

Haman is described as a descendant of Amalek, Israel’s arch enemy. We are commanded to “obliterate the memory of Amalek” (תמחה את זכר עמלק/timcheh et zekher amalek) at the same time that we are told “remember what Amalek did to you…do not forget”. (זכור את אשר  עשה לך עמלק.. לא תשכח/zackhor et asher asah lekha amalek.. lo tishkach). Thus, in recalling our greatest enemies, we say /ימח שמו וזכרו yimach shemo ve-zikhro -“may his name and memory be obliterated”, even as we ensure they are not.

There is a necessity within our Jewish tradition not to let the memory and legacy of our greatest enemies be forgotten but to give them an everlasting place in infamy. The root word in Hebrew for “obliterate” is the same as that for “protest” מחה. If their names and memories were truly obliterated, protestations would be absent and such individuals ever-present.

We are all אנשי שם/anshei shem – “people of name”, renowned individuals. Whether our names are preserved in memory to be obliterated through protestation, like Korach, or celebrated by means of approbation, like Moshe, is for each of us to determine.