Shabbat Zakhor 

Mark Podwal (b. 1945)
Digitial archival pigment print on paper
7 7/16 x 7 9/16″
USA, 2020
© Mark Podwal

Shabbat Zakhor, the “Shabbat of Remembrance” is the Sabbath immediately preceding Purim and is named for the additional Torah reading, Deuteronomy 25:17-19, which begins with the word zakhor, Hebrew for “remember.” The Torah commands, “Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way, when you were faint and weary, and struck down all who lagged behind you” (Deuteronomy 25:17-18). There are many customs associated with this Shabbat, including the reciting of a lengthy liturgical poem by Yehudah HaLevi (1075-1141), praising God for the miracles of the Purim story. The additional Torah portion read on Shabbat Zakhor is from the Book of Samuel, in which the prophet instructs King Saul to kill Amalek and his family. However, King Saul spared Agag, the Amalekite king. A midrash, or commentary, relates that before Agag died he fathered a child from whom descended Haman, Purim’s villain. According to the medieval authority Rashi, Zakhor is read on the Shabbat before Purim because of this link between the destruction of Amalek and the elimination of his wicked descendant, Haman. In his print, Podwal inserts a comically large hamantasch (a triangular cookie eaten on the festival of Purim) as Amalek’s hat, amplifying the link between the ancient enemy of the Jewish people and the defeated villain of the biblical Book of Esther, who wore a three-cornered hat.