Photo Credit: Jewish Press
The Torah commands us to remember the Sabbath, the Exodus, Amalekâs attack, the giving of the Torah, our angering of G-d in the desert, and G-dâs punishment of Miriam. All but one of these commands in the Torah to remember include the word â
zachor.â
pakad.â Whatâs the difference between these two words?
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The most basic definition of this word is offered by
Rabbi Moshe Ibn Ezra (1055-1138), who writes that it means to remember something a person once knew but forgot. Meanwhile, â
pakadâ is used in so many different ways that itâs quite difficult to pin down its core meaning. In addition to meaning remember, it means to count, to be absent, to command, to appoint, to punish, to bring about death, to visit, and to deposit.