Shabbat Zachor 5786 - Amalek as the Shadow: Remembering to transform, not to destroy

Jung's concept of the Shadow, which cannot be blotted out, but rather must be encountered and transformed, individually & collectively.

"'Amalek' against whom the Almighty declared eternal war is not any more an ethnic or racial concept but is the archetype of the wanton aggressor who smites the weak and defenseless in every generation." (emphasis added)
Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Devarim, on Ki Teitzei "Remember Amalek" p. 253.

As I write this on 23 February 2026 | 6 Adar 5786, Shabbat Zachor is our next Shabbat: the Shabbat immediately prior to Purim, a special Shabbat on which the Torah reading includes the following three verses from Parashat Ki Teitzei (from the Book of Deuteronomy), which connects to Purim by way of Haman being said to be a descendant of Amalek:

דברים כ״ה:י״ז-י״ט

(יז)זָכ֕וֹר אֵ֛ת אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂ֥ה לְךָ֖ עֲמָלֵ֑ק בַּדֶּ֖רֶךְ בְּצֵאתְכֶ֥ם מִמִּצְרָֽיִם׃ (יח) אֲשֶׁ֨ר קָֽרְךָ֜ בַּדֶּ֗רֶךְ וַיְזַנֵּ֤ב בְּךָ֙ כׇּל־הַנֶּחֱשָׁלִ֣ים אַֽחֲרֶ֔יךָ וְאַתָּ֖ה עָיֵ֣ף וְיָגֵ֑עַ וְלֹ֥א יָרֵ֖א אֱלֹהִֽים׃ (יט) וְהָיָ֡ה בְּהָנִ֣יחַ יהוה אֱלֹהֶ֣יךָ ׀ לְ֠ךָ֠ מִכׇּל־אֹ֨יְבֶ֜יךָ מִסָּבִ֗יב בָּאָ֙רֶץ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר יְהֹוָה־אֱ֠לֹהֶ֠יךָ נֹתֵ֨ן לְךָ֤ נַחֲלָה֙ לְרִשְׁתָּ֔הּ תִּמְחֶה֙ אֶת־זֵ֣כֶר עֲמָלֵ֔ק מִתַּ֖חַת הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם לֹ֖א תִּשְׁכָּֽח׃ {פ}

Deuteronomy 25:17-19

(17) Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt— (18) 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. (19) Therefore, when the ETERNAL your God grants you safety from all your enemies around you, in the land that the ETERNAL your God is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!

do not forget to blot out...
do not forget to forget
do not remember to remember...
Does this make sense?

If I might paraphrase:
"In your time of travail, you were abused most cruelly; therefore, remember to be as cruel as you can to descendants of those who were so cruel to you. What's more: actually: find a way to entirely forget."

Please note that the verse actually says "blot out the memory of Amalek"; it does not say "blot out the evil of Amalek" as some translations suggest.

In either case: does this mean to annihilate all of Amalek's descendants? Or does it mean to repress something in our own memory? To forget something about our own history?

Here I will remind myself and readers that Amalek is a descendant of Esau. Haman is a descendant of Amalek and thus is a descendant of Esau. There figures / peoples / elements that we are to "entirely blot out" are, actually, a part of our very own selves; I suggest: a part of ourselves that, try as we might to adjure, to forget, to blot out... we will never succeed.

In just a few days, on Purim, when we read Megillat Esther - if we read an unexpurgated version - we will encounter verses in Chapter 9 such as:

אסתר ט׳:ה׳-ו׳

(ה) וַיַּכּ֤וּ הַיְּהוּדִים֙ בְּכׇל־אֹ֣יְבֵיהֶ֔ם מַכַּת־חֶ֥רֶב וְהֶ֖רֶג וְאַבְדָ֑ן וַיַּֽעֲשׂ֥וּ בְשֹׂנְאֵיהֶ֖ם כִּרְצוֹנָֽם׃ (ו) וּבְשׁוּשַׁ֣ן הַבִּירָ֗ה הָרְג֤וּ הַיְּהוּדִים֙ וְאַבֵּ֔ד חֲמֵ֥שׁ מֵא֖וֹת אִֽישׁ׃

Esther 9:5-6

(5) So the Jews struck at their enemies with the sword, slaying and destroying; they wreaked their will upon their enemies. (6) In the fortress Shushan the Jews killed a total of five hundred of them.

אסתר ט׳:ט״ו-י״ז

(טו) וַיִּֽקָּהֲל֞וּ (היהודיים)[הַיְּהוּדִ֣ים] אֲשֶׁר־בְּשׁוּשָׁ֗ן גַּ֠ם בְּי֣וֹם אַרְבָּעָ֤ה עָשָׂר֙ לְחֹ֣דֶשׁ אֲדָ֔ר וַיַּֽהַרְג֣וּ בְשׁוּשָׁ֔ן שְׁלֹ֥שׁ מֵא֖וֹת אִ֑ישׁ וּבַ֨בִּזָּ֔ה לֹ֥א שָׁלְח֖וּ אֶת־יָדָֽם׃ (טז) וּשְׁאָ֣ר הַיְּהוּדִ֡ים אֲשֶׁר֩ בִּמְדִינ֨וֹת הַמֶּ֜לֶךְ נִקְהֲל֣וּ ׀ וְעָמֹ֣ד עַל־נַפְשָׁ֗ם וְנ֙וֹחַ֙ מֵאֹ֣יְבֵיהֶ֔ם וְהָרוֹג֙ בְּשֹׂ֣נְאֵיהֶ֔ם חֲמִשָּׁ֥ה וְשִׁבְעִ֖ים אָ֑לֶף וּבַ֨בִּזָּ֔ה לֹ֥א שָֽׁלְח֖וּ אֶת־יָדָֽם׃ (יז) בְּיוֹם־שְׁלוֹשָׁ֥ה עָשָׂ֖ר לְחֹ֣דֶשׁ אֲדָ֑ר וְנ֗וֹחַ בְּאַרְבָּעָ֤ה עָשָׂר֙ בּ֔וֹ וְעָשֹׂ֣ה אֹת֔וֹ י֖וֹם מִשְׁתֶּ֥ה וְשִׂמְחָֽה׃

Esther 9:15-17

(15) and the Jews in Shushan mustered again on the fourteenth day of Adar and slew three hundred men in Shushan. But they did not lay hands on the spoil. (16) The rest of the Jews, those in the king’s provinces, likewise mustered and fought for their lives. They disposed of their enemies, killing seventy-five thousand of their foes; but they did not lay hands on the spoil. (17) That was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar; and they rested on the fourteenth day and made it a day of feasting and merrymaking.

This violent and sweeping collective punishment undertaken by the Jews of Sushan and in "the king's provinces" is part of the story of Purim, try as we might to ignore this troubling fact. Esau, Amalek, Haman... a strong and troubling thread of alienation and repeatedly cultivated hatred running through Tanakh. And: if Amalek is, as Nehama Leibowitz suggests, "the archetype of the wanton aggressor who smites the weak and defenseless in every generation"... I suggest we must ask ourselves: does the archetype of the wanton aggressor live inside of us?

The estrangement, and potential for reconciliation, between Jacob and Esau, between "bnei Israel" and "Amalek", between "us" and "them" - when in fact, "them" are part of "us": this is a matter of the most crucial and urgent importance all of humanity at this critical time in history.

[Relevant is my commentary here on Sefaria on the reunion between Esau and Jacob in Parashat Vayishlach:
Vayishlach 5785 Esau's kiss: an affiliative and healing act: "Righteousness and peace have kissed".
In Parashat Vayishlach, the extraordinary markings on וַׄיִּׄשָּׁׄקֵ֑ׄהׄוּׄ - "and he [Esau] kissed him [Jacob]" - point us toward a way to transform enmity to affiliation.]

I can say with great certainty, as someone who has deeply studied human nature for most of my life, who has served as a physician / psychiatrist / Jungian psychoanalyst for more than 40 years, that it is not possible to "blot out" memories or unwanted contents of the personal or collective psyche; and when we do, it is at our own peril. Archetypes - patterns that are part of the fabric of the individual and collective psyche - can emphatically not be obliterated. They can be transformed, with great effort; but they can not be entirely obliterated or "blotted out".

San Francisco Jungian analysts Sam Kimbles and Thomas Singer have expanded the notion of the personal "Shadow" to a collective / social frame, elaborating the idea of a "cultural complex". From the Introduction to Kimbles' and Singer's 2004 book, The Cultural Complex: Contemporary Jungian Perspectives on Psyche and Society:

"In our ripe time or kairos, when understanding both the uniqueness and commonality of cultures from around the world has become essential for the well-being of the global community itself, shedding more light on what tears us apart is an essential first step. Much of what tears us apart can be understood as the manifestation of autonomous processes in the collective and individual psyche that organize themselves as cultural complexes." (emphasis added)

There are a group of Jungian analysts and psychotherapists in Israel who have courageously explored the phenomenon of the cultural complex in Israeli society, exploring how the archteypes of victimhood and the sequelae of trauma express themselves in Israeli society. Their work is deeply relevant to consideration today of Shabbat Zachor and the command to "blot out" the memory of Amalek.

Rabbi Tirtzah Firestone writes in a 2014 article entitled "The Jewish Cultural Complex" in the journal Psychological Perspectives: A Quarterly Journal of Jungian Thought Volume 57, 2014 - Issue 3: Individual and Collective Trauma:
"Although 70 years have passed since the Nazi Holocaust, the after effects resulting from it and centuries of Jewish oppression persist in Jewish tribal identity and in the mechanisms for its survival. In much the same way that PTSD affects individuals who have suffered life-threatening situations, a history of collective trauma has produced within Jewish psyches symptoms such as hypervigilance, reactivity, and a sense of profound danger in the world. The author proposes that such sedimented responses form a Jewish cultural complex with a hypermuscular defense system armed against further psychic attacks. Healing involves a restoration of the feeling function and a return to the rich body of Jewish ethical principles that balance personal security with compassion for self and other."

From a 2022 article by Israeli Jungian analyst Elana Lakh; she writes:
"On the way to the cinema [to view a 2015 documentary by a Dutch filmmaker about a trauma treatment intervention to address winter-time suffering in Gaza, entitled "Shivering in Gaza"], a taxi driver told me that the documentary must not be screened as it portrays Israel in a shameful way. When I said that the film is about trauma treatment in Gaza, he told me that Palestinians do not suffer from trauma because they are not human. His statement demonstrates the split that divides humans and non-humans, projecting the shadow onto the Palestinians. Neumann (1990) described the shadow as containing everything bad or sick, asocial, ugly, useless, sexual, animalistic, and infantile, everything that is opposed to the self-perception of a civilized human. The taxi driver’s statement can be viewed as a representation of this split, attributing the non-human parts of the self to the Palestinians. This statement holds a component of reality denial, and calls for understanding of the reason for this disavowal." (p. 20) (emphasis added)
"When our Shadow Makes us Blind and Deaf to Suffering: The power of a cultural complex in Israel." JUNGIANEUM/Yearbook 2022

Turning again to our verses for Shabbat Zachor:

תִּמְחֶה֙ אֶת־זֵ֣כֶר עֲמָלֵ֔ק you shall blot out the memory of Amalek
מָחָה√
(Qal) to wipe, to blot out, obliterate, to destroy
to blot out, exterminate; also to strike
(Niphal) to be wiped out, to be blotted out to be exterminated
(Hiphil) to blot out (from memory)

A thesaurus search today for the expression "blot out" brings us to:

Do any of these synonyms for "blot out" particularly call to you?
I ask myself: do I want to remember to:
crush
decimate
demolish
eradicate
exterminate
extinguish
finish off
liquidate
obliterate
etc etc
any other humans beings?

Unwanted / negative contents of our psyches - whether individual or collective - constitue what Jung termed "the Shadow". When we extrude or suppress these contents, that we experience as hateful or evil, we do so at our own peril; because these contents remain, repressed and not understood, and inevitably return, projected outwards.

On Carl Jung's concept of the Shadow:
"C.G. Jung’s concept of the shadow relates to a part of the psyche that consists of the tendencies the ego considers to be unwanted (Jung, CW [Collected Works] 9.I,1959/1968, p. 284, para.513). These are the parts that we judge to be bad and shameful. On a collective level, the culture’s unwanted characteristics develop throughout the history of the group and are expressed in the values of the culture, as well as in cultural products such as myths, legends, and art (Neumann, 1990). The group’s unwanted parts become the content of the shadow, projected in order to eliminate all that is bad and evil and maintain the goodness and cohesion of the group (Shalit, 2004). The archetypal shadow is the dark side of culture and of human nature, repressed and rejected from the light of consciousness, and considered evil (Jung, CW 9I,1959/1968, para. 567, p. 322). This evil is what the ego experiences as harmful and damaging to its continuity and sense of safety. The ego, as the center of conscious personality, developed within the collective values that are transmitted through education, and identifies with those values, thus experiencing contradictions to them as threatening, and therefore evil (Neumann, 1990)."

Marie Louise von Franz, an important student and follower of Jung's in the second half of the 20th century, profoundly explored the phenomenon of evil within ourselves, with a focus on the sequelae that arise from suppressing - "blotting out" - the Shadow. In her 1974 book, Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales, she writes:

"In general, when investigating it [the Shadow], we discover that it consists partly of personal and partly of collective elements.... To have the courage to accept a quality which one does not like in oneself, and which one has chosen to repress for many years, is an act of great courage. But if one does not accept the quality, then it functions behind one's back. To see and admit that the shadow is part of the problem, is to say that something has happened to me, something has leaked out; but the great ethical problem begins when one makes up one's mind to express the shadow consciously. That requires great care and reflection if it is not to have a disturbing reaction." (pp 6-7)
"In the archetypal experience of evil... evil entails being swept away by one-sidedness, by only one single pattern of behavior." (p. 147)

Kabbalistic tradition instructs that the Gematria - numerical value of Amalek - עמלק - has the same numerical value as the word for "doubt" - ספק (safek), each equal to 240. Thus, in Kabbalah, Amalek's equivalency with "doubt" is understood as an interior uncertainty about one's connection with God. I suggest that we can benefically invite ourselves to question and to doubt the impossible instruction to blot out others, to blot out memories of our own traumas or of other's actions, to blot out elements in ourselves that are unwanted, to blot out evil.

Tikkun olam - the repair of our broken and suffering world, the rectification of the shattering of primordial unity - must always include an awareness of what is broken. Transformation requires awareness and engagement.

In today's world, where we are in the midst of so much alienation, hatred, injustice and violence, I suggest that we can benefit greatly by emphatically not blotting out memories. On Shabbat Zachor, indeed, let us remember. But let us remember to explore what we may have in common with those we are taught to "hate"; let us pursue justice and cultivate affiliation.

עמוס ג׳:ג׳

(ג) הֲיֵלְכ֥וּ שְׁנַ֖יִם יַחְדָּ֑ו בִּלְתִּ֖י אִם־נוֹעָֽדוּ׃

Amos 3:3

(3) Can two walk together without actually having met? (my translation)

תהילים פ״ה:י״א

(יא) חֶסֶד־וֶאֱמֶ֥ת נִפְגָּ֑שׁוּ צֶ֖דֶק וְשָׁל֣וֹם נָשָֽׁקוּ׃

Psalms 85:11

(11) Faithfulness and truth have met; righteousness and peace have kissed. (my translation)

תהילים פ״ט:ג׳

(ג) כִּֽי־אָמַ֗רְתִּי ע֭וֹלָם חֶ֣סֶד יִבָּנֶ֑ה שָׁמַ֓יִם ׀ תָּכִ֖ן אֱמוּנָתְךָ֣ בָהֶֽם׃

Psalms 89:3

(3) Indeed, I have said in my heart: “The world shall be built on love; You will establish Your faithfulness in the very heavens.” (my translation)

Rabbi Anita Josefa Barzman MD Founder, micro-mishkan.net

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