Amalek as a Siman?!

1. עמלק סימן

The Gemara in Bava Basra Daf :מו quotes a Baraisa, listing various cases of people testifying for others where they may stand to gain from their testimony:

תנו רבנן ערב מעיד ללוה ...מלוה מעיד ללוה,  לוקח ראשון מעיד ללוקח שני ...קבלן אמרי לה מעיד ואמרי לה אינו מעיד

Before the Baraisa, the Gemara says: עמלק סימן, a siman for the four cases, which begin with the letters .ע.מ.ל.ק

R’ Yaakov Emden, in הגהות יעב"ץ, expresses surprise at Chazal using Amalek for a siman, about whom the Torah writes תמחה את זכר עמלק! He explains that  Chazal saw a רמז in the passuk hinting that this is an exception, ולהתיר להשתמש בו לאוקומי אגרסא – and to permit using it to remember learning. Even עמלק can be used in the aid of remembering Torah! Certainly, we should make use of all tools at our disposal, such as simanim stories and illustrations, to help us remember and learn more and more Torah!

It goes further: if we look carefully at the Baraisa, we will notice that the cases are not arranged in the most simple logical sequence. We would expect the first case to be מלוה, the primary בעל חוב, and we would expect to find ערב and קבלן together, since they are two types of guarantors. Instead, the order of the Baraisa is ערב, מלוה, לוקח, קבלן. Why? It seem that the very order of the Baraisa was arranged to facilitate the siman of עמלק, which is supposed to be used to recall the four cases! As evidence for this suggestion, we can look in the טור, in חושן משפט סימן לז, where he quotes these four cases. There, he does list the cases in their logical sequence: מלוה, ערב, קבלן, לוקח! This strongly suggests that the Baraisa’s order is different for a reason, namely, for the purpose of the siman of עמלק.

2. Simanim in תורה שבכתב

רבינו אביגדור כהן צדק, one of the בעלי תוספותת, wrote a commentary on איכה. At the end of the first Perek, he writes: ולכן נכתב ספר זה בא"ב להיות רגיל בפיהם כשירה – therefore, this sefer [Eichah] was written in Alef Beis format, so it should be familiar in [Klal Yisroel’s] mouths, like a song. The very pesukim of מגילת איכה were written in a format utilizing a method to help us remember it!

The מבי"ט (contemporary of the Beis Yosef), in his sefer בית אלקים (שער התפילה פרק ט"ו) writes the following about אשרי:

וכדי שיהא שגור ומורגל בפיו שלא ישכח או לא ישמיט פסוק ממנו, למעלתו סדרו אותו באל"ף בי"ת, וזה היה ג"כ טעם כל מה שהיה סדורו באל"ף בי"ת, כי גם קינות ירמיהו לסבה זו היו בסדר אל"ף בי"ת, כדי שיהיו מורגלים באמירתם ויחזרו בתשובה שלימה.

…and in order that it should be fluent and familiar in one’s mouth, that he should not forget or leave out any passuk, because of its importance, it was arranged in Alef Beis format, and this is also the reason for everything arranged in Alef Beis format, because Yirmiyah’s Kinnos (i.e., Eichah) is also arranged in Alef Beis format for this reason, so that they should be fluent in reciting it, and return with complete teshuvah.

We see, then, from these sources, that תורה שבכתב itself is written in many places with a memory tool, in order to help us remember it and be fluent in it!