Parashat Zachor

More and more of us have come to understand in recent years the need to defeat evil when it reveals itself as absolute evil in practice. The historical experience teaches that a violent ideology that deliberately harms the weak and seeks to erase the very appearance of good in the world is not a phenomenon to be "contained," but a reality that must be blotted out "from under the heavens," in a world where people are truly murdered and harmed. Rav Kook deepens this perspective with courage: in our world it is unequivocal that evil must be destroyed! And together with this, even the darkest place carries a potential for future repair, even if we are unable to actualize it now or in our ordinary world. This distinction does not soften the struggle. It keeps it determined and uncompromising, but it does illuminate the critical root, so that we do not turn hatred itself into a principle of our lives.