It’s time to read Parshas Zachor once again. This Shabbos in every Jewish community everyone is required by halachah to hear a formal reading of the Torah passage describing Amalek’s offensive and to “remember it.” We must listen intently not missing a single word and the reader must pronounce every syllable correctly. In many kehillos the custom is to read the final pasuk twice because there are two opinions on the correct vocalization of one letter and we want to make sure we’re fulfilling the mitzvah by all accounts.

Yes we know all about it. We’re supposed to remember forever what Amalek did to us on the way when we left Egypt and that we must obliterate this enemy’s name from the face of the earth.

But perhaps there is something we’re forgetting. We forget that aside from the special Torah reading on Shabbos Zachor we are supposed to do something to wipe out the memory of Amalek. We forget why he attacked us at Refidim in the first place and why he continues to wage war against us to this very day in various guises.

In every generation Amalek has the power to act against us. The soul of Amalek empowers such things as the global media campaign that was launched to mold public opinion in preparation for the Durban II conference in Geneva in 2009 which like its predecessor served as an international forum for anti-Semitic propaganda the likes of which we haven’t seen since Hitler’s days. And now the media have been enlisted to spread the word about Israel Apartheid Week which is scheduled to go from one university to the next throughout the Western world.

We forget or perhaps I should say we don’t fully keep in mind our own part in Amalek’s power. We aren’t always ready to internalize the truth that we largely contribute to the bitter reality that Amalek and his modern representatives who speak in his name and his language are able to run rampant against us all over the world.

And we are supposed to remember obligated to remember that this perennial enemy of ours didn’t just come to attack us out of the blue. We actually invited the attack. We invited it then at Refidim and we have invited it in every generation since. Painful though it is to admit we give him the power and the opportunity to plague us.

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Yes it’s a painful and annoying fact but it’s hinted to in the text of the Torah itself. The matter deserves a bit of additional study just to sharpen our memory and polish up some well-known truths that have grown rusty from habit. If we look at the psukim we see that the pasuk that appears just before the story of Amalek talks about the Israelites putting HaKadosh Baruch Hu to the test to find out “whether Hashem is among us or not” (Shemos 17:7). And then “Amalek came and he made war at Refidim.” Certainly there is some essential link between these two verses. That is to say there was a preexisting problem of emunah in Hashem and it came to full expression in Parshas Zachor: “And you were faint and weary and he did not fear G‑d.”

That is one problem.

Another problem is alluded to in the word “Refidim.” It’s well-known that therein lies the key to understanding our role in empowering Amalek in enabling his very existence in this world.

This time we won’t employ Rashi’s interpretation which says that Amalek appeared at Refidim because the Bnei Yisrael “rafu yedeihem” slackened their hands from learning Torah although this is a natural consequence of the defect in their emunah (a subtle flaw to us but a shortcoming for people who had just witnessed revelation of the highest levels) and the root of all the aberrations that occur in the Jewish camp to this day.

This time however we will look at the concept of “Refidim” from the point of view presented by the Kli Yakar who observes that the letters of “Refidim ” rearranged spell “peridim” — separated. When the Bnei Yisrael were confronted by the Amaleki warriors they were disunited lacking in love for one another divided by disagreements. This as we know was the state they were in before they reached Har Sinai to receive the Torah. There at the foot of the mountain a rare spirit of benevolence prevailed among them and they were completely and absolutely united.

But prior to that it was due to their disunity that Amalek was able to strike at the periphery of the Israelite camp.

The wicked Haman too found that chink in our armor as the Sefas Emes explains. When Haman came before King Achashverosh appealing for permission to destroy the Jewish nation he said “There is one people scattered and dispersed among the peoples….” “Dispersed” (mefurad in Hebrew) says the Sefas Emes means that the Jewish nation was divided internally consumed by disagreements. Haman realized that this was his golden opportunity to annihilate us because he saw the same disunity hinted in the word “Refidim ” that had prevailed when Amalek appeared the first time around in history.

Rav Yehonasan Eibeschitz writes in Yaaros Devash that this is precisely the reason why Esther told Mordechai in response to Haman’s designs to “Go and gather together all the Jews.” Go and create a reassembly among them unite them for only through the power of unity can we defeat Haman. To quote the Midrash “Rebbi said great is shalom for even if the people of Israel are worshipping idols yet there is shalom among them HaKadosh Baruch Hu says ‘I cannot prevail over them since shalom is among them ’ as is said ‘Ephraim is joined to idols let him alone’ (Hoshea 4:17).

This is also the reason the Maharal teaches us that on Purim in particular we have a mitzvah to send portions of food to one another. “Ish l’re’ehu” each man to his friend his peer. Aside from doing chesed by giving matanos l’evyonim gifts to the poor we are commanded to strengthen our bonds of friendship with our peers. This is part of our war against Amalek. Only by loving one another and lowering the volume of our disagreements can we defeat him as he was defeated in the days of Mordechai and Esther. This is the meaning of “Remember what Amalek did to you.” Remember what happened when you were divided by disagreements; remember how it brought the scourge known as Amalek upon you.

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And in summation permit me to express my own fear fear of the wave of anti-Semitism engulfing the world. Let us look inward at our own chareidi community at the terrible disunity among us. Not one of us is happy about this terrible state of affairs which invites Amalek to overpower us on various fronts. For we are “faint and weary ” as Bnei Yisrael were in the wilderness the first time Amalek attacked. We see the bleak reality among us but we’ve grown weary of trying to bring it to an end. And what in fact can an individual do in face of whole organizations or communities fighting each other? On Purim there is a way. Each one of us can not only can but is commanded to combat the disunity through the mitzvah of mishloach manos ish l’re’ehu which is designed to increase unity as the Maharal teaches us. Our Sages understood that every person’s contribution to the war on Amalek has value and therefore no one is exempt.

True we cannot make peace between whole groups of people who insist on fighting but there is one thing we can do. Each one of us in his own home or community can bring down the level of hostility towards “the other.” We can cut back on speaking against him; we can learn to respect him despite disagreements because as the Gemara says “I am a created being and my fellowman is a created being.”

Surely we can do something win some small victory in the struggle against our timeless enemy who is running rampant right now. Let each person send a mishloach manos of less hatred and derision toward his peer from the other camp. It doesn’t matter if we think we’re the one who’s right and not that fellow over there. The enemy is at our gates once again stronger than ever before and every act of reconciliation from any one of us builds a protective wall around our people.