A malek the age-old enemy of the Jewish People — where is he today? After all we are obligated to fight him and his descendants to the death in every generation!
When we first encountered him in the Wilderness he was easy to identify. Following their wondrous redemption from Egyptian bondage Am Yisrael sang in Shiras Hayam: “Peoples heard they trembled… the chieftains of Edom were alarmed…” Indeed all the peoples trembled in fear and awe when they heard about the cataclysmic event: an enslaved humiliated people going out to freedom amid miracles. Yet all those nations were still unable to fully grasp the meaning of this amazing geulah and therefore they just stood by dumbfounded and paralyzed. Only many generations later did they come out of their fossilized idolatry and recognize HaKadosh Baruch Hu as belief in G?d took hold at last and gradually came to include most of humanity.
Amalek however saw it all clearly right from the beginning. This nation was completely deliberate in its intent to spoil the effect. Amalek understood that this nation of freed slaves was a major threat to the existing social order a world based on masters and slaves. There was no such thing as liberated slaves — certainly not an entire nation of them! They had to be attacked and eliminated. The Midrash teaches that Amalek tried to recruit other nations to join them as allies in the war but they refused.
We know what ended up happening. Amalek earned itself an eternal curse obligating us to wipe out not only its presence but all memory as well.
