My husband and I moved to Australia on December 2, 2025. Twelve days later, fifteen innocent people were gunned down at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, including a Holocaust survivor and a ten-year-old girl.
Months later, the Jewish community is still tense. It feels as though we are holding our breath, terrified to exhale and let down our guard.
Living with that fear has forced us to think about how Jews should respond to hatred. This week’s Torah portion, Ki Teitzei, offers a surprising answer.
The Torah commands us not to despise Egypt, even though the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites and sought to kill their newborn sons. Yet we must never forget Amalek, which attacked the Israelites soon after their escape from Egypt, targeting those who were weak and lagging behind.
Why must we forgive Egypt but never forget Amalek?
To explain, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks turned to an ancient collection of rabbinic wisdom called Pirkei Avot. One passage teaches that love dependent on a particular cause disappears when the cause does, while love without a cause endures. The logic is simple: when we love someone for a particular reason, the love may disappear when that reason does. When love is not tied to any one reason, it can last even when circumstances change.
Rabbi Sacks argues that the same is true of hatred. Egypt’s hatred was evil, but it had a cause: fear of the Israelites’ growing strength. Amalek attacked without provocation, targeting the Israelites at their weakest. Because Amalek’s hatred had no cause, changing the circumstances would not make it disappear.
Luca Giordano’s painting The Battle of Israel and Amalek captures the consuming nature of that hatred. High above the fighting between the two nations, Moses stands with his arms supported on either side. Yet aside from Moses and the two people beside him, one cannot really pick out a single Israelite. It looks as though the enemy is fighting itself. Giordano suggests that Amalek’s hatred is so consuming that Amalek ultimately seems to be doing battle with itself.
Amalek today need not refer to a particular people. It can describe a mindset—a worldview that has no space for Jews. The rise in antisemitic speech and violence reminds us that some hatred cannot be explained or reasoned away. Our responsibility is to recognize it and remain vigilant against it.
Rabbi Sacks concludes that Amalek never entirely disappears—but neither do the Jewish people. Hatred returns in every generation, but we are still here, testifying that light can overcome hatred and evil.
Ilana Epstein is Rebbetzin of Mizrachi Melbourne, serving alongside her husband, Rabbi Daniel Epstein, Rabbi of the community. Prior to moving to Australia, they served at Western Marble Arch Synagogue in London, previously the Cockfosters and North Southgate community, following seventeen years living and working in Israel.
Ilana is a writer and programme developer with experience in Jewish leadership and Holocaust education. She has led educational delegations to Poland with the Holocaust Educational Trust and March of the Living UK since 2015. In 2024, she was commissioned to write historical material for the adaptation of The Tattooist of Auschwitz.
Ilana has served as Director of Educational Projects at Jewish Futures and previously as an educator for the United Synagogue. She devised and leads a development programme for the wives of European rabbis on behalf of the Conference of European Rabbis, and was selected as an inaugural Sacks Scholar in 2023.
This essay was written as part of our collaboration with The Rabbi Sacks Legacy Sacks Scholars.
