[Avodah] Amalek (was rules)

[Poppers, Michael]

In Avodah V28n208, RJK wrote:
> RYBS...writes, in the name of his father, that there are 2 halachot regarding Amalek.  The first is based on Dvarim, and is a commandment on each individual Jew to wipe out individual Amalekites.  The second mitzvah is found in Shemot, and is a commandment to the People of Israel to wage war against the  community of Amalek.  The first mitzvah applies only, the Rav emphasizes, to genealogical descendants of Amalek who, since Sancheriv mixed up the nations, are unknown.  The second mitzvah applies to any nation that seeks to destroy the Jewish People. <
Wouldn't it accordingly make more sense to lein the "People"-level parasha at the first communal opportunity (the Shabbos before Purim) rather than only at the second (Purim morning), especially considering the relative turnout of anashim nashim v'taf at the first opportunity (a Shabbos) vs. the second (a weekday, usually earlier in the morning than the previous Shabbos's leining)?  (Of course, if we leined from the seifer-Shmos parasha on that Shabbos, we might not call it "P'Zachor" :).)  Perhaps such a question is why we are commanded to lein the seifer-D'varim parasha first -- with its "zachor eis asher asah l'cha,"_it_ is directed at Am Yisrael -- and the seifer-Shmos parasha later, on Purim, when we recognize H' working on fulfilling His "machoh emcheh" promise. 

All the best from 
-- Michael Poppers via BB pager