Shabbos remembrance empowers erasing Amalek

בפסיקתא ומדרש תנחומא בשבת זכור ובעמלק זכור כו'.

In the Pesikta and Midrash Tanchuma: regarding Shabbos it says "Remember" (Zachor), and regarding Amalek it says "Remember" (Zachor).

The Sefas Emes notes that the same word "Zachor" appears both by Shabbos and by the mitzvah to remember Amalek, hinting that the two are linked.

אבל התי' הוא כי זכירה זו תלויה בזו.

But the resolution is that this remembrance depends on that one.

The two acts of "remembering" are bound together — one cannot fully succeed without the other.

וכפי מה שזוכרין קדושת שבת כן יכולין למחות עמלק.

And to the degree that one remembers the kedushah (holiness) of Shabbos, so is one able to blot out Amalek.

The power to erase Amalek flows directly from how strongly one holds onto the holiness of Shabbos.

דכ' והיה בית יעקב אש בית יוסף להבה ובית עשו לקש.

As it is written: "And the house of Yaakov shall be a fire, the house of Yosef a flame, and the house of Esav for straw."

The navi (Ovadiah) pictures the kedushah of Yaakov and Yosef as fire and flame that consume Esav, who is mere straw.

פי' כפי התחזקות אש ולהבה של הקדושה.

The meaning is: according to the strengthening of the fire and flame of the holiness,

As the inner fire of kedushah grows stronger,

מתבטלת כח עשו.

the power of Esav is nullified.

Esav's strength has no independent existence; it dissolves before a fully burning kedushah.

כמו שהקש שומר לפרי.

Just as the straw (the chaff) guards the fruit,

He uses the image of a husk that protects the grain within.

והוא משמר ותפיסה ג"כ להפנימיות.

so too it is a guard and a casing for the penimiyus (inner essence).

Esav, the outer "shell," actually serves to protect and contain the inner holy point until it is ready to be revealed.

שהקליפה סובבת הפנימיות.

For the kelipah (outer shell) surrounds the penimiyus.

In the Sefas Emes's idiom, the kelipah (the husk of impurity) encases the inner spark, the way a shell surrounds a seed.

אבל ע"י בירור הקדושה לנקותו מכל פסולת.

But through the refining of the holiness, to cleanse it of all dross,

When the avodah of berur (refinement) separates the holy from the waste,

אז נשאר הקש קש.

then the straw remains [mere] straw.

Once the inner kedushah is extracted, the outer shell has no further purpose and is left as worthless chaff to be burned.

ואלה הפרשיות.

And these are the special parshiyos [of this season]:

He now maps the three pre-Pesach readings — Shekalim, Zachor, Parah — onto the fire, flame, and straw.

שקלים מטבע של אש והוא בית יעקב אש התלהבות נדיבות לבות בנ"י לה' אחד.

Shekalim — a "coin of fire" — this is "the house of Yaakov, a fire": the burning generosity of the hearts of Bnei Yisrael toward the One Hashem.

Chazal say Hashem showed Moshe a coin of fire for the machatzis ha'shekel; this corresponds to the fiery devotion of Bnei Yisrael's giving.

זכור יוסף להבה כמ"ש להבה שולט למרחוק לכן יש בו זכירה לעולמי עד.

Zachor is Yosef, the "flame," as it says — a flame reaches and rules from afar; therefore it contains a remembrance for all eternity.

Just as a flame sends its light over a great distance, the mitzvah of remembering (and erasing) Amalek extends through all generations forever.

אח"כ שריפת פרה הוא בית עשו לקש.

Afterward, the burning of the Parah (the Red Heifer) is "the house of Esav for straw."

Parshas Parah, which involves burning the heifer to ash, corresponds to Esav being reduced to consumed straw.

וזה ג"כ ענין אומרם ז"ל משמיעין על השקלים ועל הכלאים.

And this is also the meaning of what Chazal said: "We announce concerning the shekalim and concerning the kilayim (forbidden mixtures)."

On the first of Adar, courts proclaimed both the shekel obligation and the removal of kilayim from the fields — and the Sefas Emes reads a deeper meaning into this pairing.

שע"י השקלים נתברר התערובות.

For through the shekalim the mixture is sorted out.

The fiery devotion of the shekalim accomplishes the berur, separating holy from unholy just as kilayim separates forbidden blends.

וגם הקדושה יוצאת לחירות מבית האסורים שנק' בית הכלא.

And also the kedushah goes out to freedom from the prison-house, which is called the "house of confinement" (beis ha'kele).

Through this refinement the holy spark, once imprisoned within the shell, is set free — a wordplay linking kilayim to kele (prison).

ונשאר בית עשו לקש:

And the house of Esav remains [as] straw.

Once the holiness is liberated, Esav is left as empty chaff, fit only to be burned away.

Summary: The single word "Zachor" links Shabbos to Amalek — the strength to blot out Amalek comes from holding fast to the kedushah of Shabbos. The three readings of the season (Shekalim, Zachor, Parah) parallel the fire, flame, and straw of Yaakov, Yosef, and Esav: through the avodah of berur the holy spark is freed from its shell, and Esav is left as mere straw to be consumed.