War Diary 6
and then came Amalek...
Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt—how, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear.
Therefore, when Hashem your God grants you safety from all your enemies around you, in the land that Hashem your God is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!
Week 7 – Lev will be in Gaza soon
He is strong, he’s a good soldier, he will protect his men as they will protect him. He will fight well, because he knows why and against what he is fighting. He is involved in a milchemet mitzvah, an obligatory war, a war to bring tikkun olam.
It’s a hard concept: how a war can be an expression of tikkun olam.
According to the Torah, after the Jews left Egypt they were set upon by a nation called Amalek. Amalek targeted the weak and defenseless, killing for the sake of killing. At the end of this war, in which Israel was successful in driving off the Amelekites, Hashem swore that we would be at war with Amalek forever.
Centuries later, when Shaul became the first king of Israel, Hashem charged him to go out and destroy Amalek. The Israelites won the war, but Shaul left the king, Agag, alive, until the Prophet Shmuel executed him with his own hands. According to an oral tradition, the night that Agag was held alive, he slept with a servant girl, so his seed was preserved.
Haman, the villain of the Purim story who plotted to wipe out the entire Jewish people, is introduced as an Agagite, a descendent of that long-ago Amalek king. A biological descendent or an ideological one, we don’t know.
The rabbis of 2000 years ago realized that empires and armies had so mixed the surrounding nations that there is no way to really designate Amalek as a specific nation, but the spirit of Amalek lives on. Hitler was Amalek. Stalin was Amalek. Yahya Sinwar is Amalek. Hamas is Amalek.
There is Amalek that’s not connected to the Jewish people. Pol Pot was Amalek and Chairman Mao and Muamaar Ghadaffi and the Assad family in Syria. Amalek can be from any nation, any race.
Amalek is the unbridled lust for power built upon the humiliation and suffering of others, particularly the vulnerable. Amalek is not just a disregard for human life, but describes one who derives pleasure through causing suffering, and more, through degrading, mutilating, raping. Amalek is not ashamed of making a public display of bloodthirsty barbarism. Such acts feed pride and enjoyment: not a physical pleasure but a (can I use this word here?) spiritual fulfillment through destroying the lives of others who can be exploited because of their weakness.
The war against Amalek is the war against that.
It’s not like Jihad, because the war against Amalek does not mean killing someone who will not convert to Judaism. It is not like Holy War because Amalek endangers you even if you don’t believe in any God at all. The war against Amalek is a war against the phenomenon of pure evil in this world, evil for evil’s sake, the performance of such evil.
Amalek is a seducer. The people of Shushan had nothing against the Jews until Haman singled them out for extinction, and then the Persians were quite willing to join in the work of Amalek. Nations of Europe, released from the bonds of civilization by Nazi barbarism, killed Jewish friends with enthusiasm. People ripping down posters of kidnapped children and proclaiming the glory of barbaric violence are closing up their hearts to suffering and opening up their arms to Amalek. We see it happening all over the world.
Jews have no truck with Amalek. Jews have had armies from the time of Avraham and have fought bravely and often times against great odds. But even those that we kill in battle, even those who use their own people, their own children, as human shields are not subject to mutilation or desecration, because every human is created b’tzelem elohim, the image of Hashem.
Of course, there are Jews who have killed, who have murdered, who have raped, who have plundered. Every nation has their criminals and sadists. But I can think of no instance in our history that we have glorified bloodshed for the sake of bloodshed, where causing pain and suffering to the weak and vulnerable has been seen as expressing the will of God.
Rather, we have more than most been the target for the forces of Amalek. Partly, this is because over the past 2000 years, Jews have eschewed political and physical power. The destruction of the Second Temple in Roman times and our utter defeat and banishment for the land of Israel came as a result of violent revolts against the tyranny of the Romans. We imagined that if we focused on our spiritual life and withdrew from the drive for self-rule and political independence, then the nations of the world would allow us to live in peace. We had not learned the lesson that passivity in the face of aggression whets the appetite of the hungry. The consequence of yielding our physical protection to others resulted in massacres and persecutions and degradation without end, even in countries of the “enlightened” West. Anti-Jewish hatred always finds an excuse, but never really needs one.
I have much more to say on this, but it will have to wait for later. In the meanwhile, I am fearful for and proud of my son and my people. Hashem oz l’amo yiten. Hashem yivarech et amo bashalom. Hashem will give strength to His people. Hashem will bless HIs people with peace. We have returned to grasp the sword of history, sharp and bloody though it is, and Hashem gives us strength to wield it with skill and discernment. And our strength is the foundation of peace, the greatest of blessings.
לא מצא הקדוש ברוך הוא כלי מחזיק ברכה לישראל אלא השלום
The Holy One blessed be He found no vessel that could prove a blessing to Israel more than peace.
That’s why so many of our prayers concern peace. That we should merit to see it soon, in our days. Amen