Pasuk (25:17-19) "Remember what Amalek did to you...that he happened upon you on the way...when you were faint and exhausted, and he did not fear Hashem...you shall wipe out the memory of Amalek from under the heaven - you shall not forget". It is a positive commandment to erase the memory of Amalek. By tradition, the Sages derive from the word "Remember (Zochor)", that one must orally remember the treachery which Amalek did, and from the words "you shall not forget", one must not forget this from one's heart. Rav Moshe Feinstein explains that usually when we discuss the act of remembering and forgetting, it usually has to deal with the head, not the heart. Why do the Sages explain that from the words "you shall not forget", we are commanded not to forget what Amalek did, from our hearts? He explains that the heart is the house of ones emotions, by one remembering in his heart, one will then feel emotionally the pain of what Amalek had done to our nation, and the dangers of his corruptive influence. By placing this in our hearts, we will naturally distance ourselves from evildoers, and we will remember this Mitzvah continuously. Just before the Torah brings down this section about Amalek, the Torah tells us about using honest weights and measures. Since the two are written one after the other, the Sages find a common denominator between these two seemingly different Mitzvos. When someone is dishonest in his business dealings, one has a lack of faith. This person doesn't believe that Hashem will grant him a decent income, and thus he feels that he needs to use dishonest weights to attain what he thinks he needs for an income. Our Sages tell us that this lack of faith was also found by the Bnei Yisroel when they left Egypt, and thus enabled Amalek to attack them. Rabbi Z. Leff brings down a parable of a person who was hitching for a ride on a main road. A guy pulls over and offers him a lift. The person goes into the car and holds his heavy bag on his lap. The driver tells the person to place his bags on the chair, there is no reason to hold the heavy bag. The person answers him that it was nice enough of him to offer him a ride, and it would be too much if I would also burden you with my bag. This is the way many of us act. We ask Hashem for help in our everyday life and Hashem gives us life every day. Yet when it comes to one's income, he feels that he doesn't want to "burden Hashem", and is thus "willing" to worry about his income by himself. Just as one relies on Hashem for giving him the breath of life, one is to rely on Hashem for ones income also. Each person must do his needed input, and the rest will come from Hashem. We know that every nation in the world has a dominant characteristic which can be used to further Hashem's purposes in the world. Yet we see in this Parsha, that Amalek is different, Amalek is to be erased. What was so bad about Amalek that there is nothing positive to learn from them? Amalek was different. They did not attack Israel for political or military ends, rather something much deeper. Amalek wanted to wipe out any remnant of spirituality and holiness. A person may feel that he is an observant Jew, but if he is cold towards Torah and Mitzvot he will end up being cold towards the signs of Hashem's supervision in the world. It is written in the Zohar, that the Amalekite attitude of attacking anything which has to do with recognizing Hashem in this world, would be prevalent in the time of the "footsteps of Moshiach". The masters of Kabbalah foresaw that in this era there will be people of Israel who would adhere to the Amalekite ideology. This is the hardest test, the time where the Shechina is in exile and darkness obscures the spiritual world. Our task is to increase our faith in Hashem, for "everything is in the hands of Hashem, except for the fear of Hashem". (Adapted from Artscroll Chumash, Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser, Rabbi Pelcovitz, Rabbi Leff - Tape on Parnossa 1 )