Parshas Zachor (Rebroadcast): The Insidious Nature of Amalek

I want to say something that you probably aren't going to like. I want to discuss something that you're probably not going to enjoy, and if one is well queasy, well then maybe this one isn't for you. So the viewer's discretion is advised. This Shabbos is par shas zohar. This Shabbos we are going to read in front of all men, women and children, a biblically ordained Torah reading of the time that Amalek came and attacked the Jewish people right after they had been miraculously saved from the hands of Mitsrayim. Now we had just walked on dry land, through water that had just split an untouchable nation, a nation that has been put on a plateau. And now Amalek comes with nothing to gain but to destroy hope, but to jump like a kamikaze pilot, as a person would, into a scalding bath to cool it off, to give up absolutely everything that they have, only to watch the world burn. They hope their dreams are to destroy good. As long as they remain in this world. Hashem's throne, hashem's quise, is still missing, is still lacking. Their motives are sinister and it's on this Shabbos that we recall, we remember, that any centilla of their existence in this world must be annihilated. Even the Haftora depicts how Amalek really died thousands of years ago, but in their children, in his descendants, their principles, their ideals cannot be tolerated and they must be destroyed. It's a melchema shal mitzvah. It's a war for good. It's a war for a mitzvah that we must go and destroy Amalek. It's a sobering reminder that real evil does exist, and it's uncomfortable, for we live at a time that everything is accepted, but here we see that, however, there is something that is not accepted and that is Amalek and its ideals.

In the Haftora we're going to read this Shabbos after the reading of Harsha Sacher, more about how King Shol, king Shol HaMelach, one of the greatest leaders that the Jewish people have had, was told by the prophet Shmuel that he should go and wipe out, annihilate all of the remaining Amalekians. He must go, destroy Amalek. And the following is how Shmuel conveyed Hashem's message to the general and Melach Shol Koyamah Hashem tzvah koz pokazetieh s'ashir usah Amalek. God remembers, god recalls what the Amalekians did to Ben-E Israel Hashir sum loy ba'adarach, ba'aloy se me mitzvahim, that they attacked us. Atalekh you Shol go vi'ekisah es Amalek. Ve'ekharam tem es kolashir loy ve'loy sach wal alav. Go and smite Amalek utterly, destroy all of them. Have no pity upon them.

Ve'ay matah en sleay me'ish ad-ishah, man and woman, and hear something that's hard to hear Me'olel ve'ad yonik, infant and suckling. Me'shar ve'ad seh. Me'gomal ve'ad hamar, man, woman, infant, suckling ox, sheep, camel, all wiped out, destroyed, must be annihilated. Libi oymur li'. My heart tells me. How could it be, how could it be that we could wage war, that we could be commanded to destroy even a young infant, but we are commanded from Akkadosh Baruchu. It is something that is above, maybe, our intellect, that this is real. Ra' and Amalek, and in all forms of Amalek, must be destroyed.

When it comes to parashah Zohar, when it comes to this week's reading and the remembrance to destroy our Mollek the Chavitz Chaim's students actually documented how their Rebbe the Chavitz Chaim actually was angry, was more upset on Shabbos, parashah Zohar, and even though, yes, it does say in the Zohar that one should not get angry on Shabbos because it could violate the prohibition of low Savarru'esh of not lighting a fire on Shabbos, because getting angry can be like lighting a fire inside, but the answer is that this is a Melchoma Shalmitzva, this is Ohave HaShem Sinu-Ruh, this is those that love God, fight his battles and destroy evil, and that type of anger and that type of searching for retribution and avengence is encouraged. On parashah Zohar. If you look inside of your own life, you'll find a Mollek everywhere. The numerical value of the word Mollek is that of the exact same of the word suffix, a Mollek.

It's been documented over and over that what they do is they create doubt. They create well, maybe the Jewish people aren't all that great. Well, maybe that. What if that's always holding you back? A Mollek.

And furthermore, about a Mollek's evil, wicked, wretched nature, that they actually, when they attacked us, had nothing to gain. The Jewish people owned no real estate, we had no homeland, we still hadn't entered into Eretz Yisrael, we were still wandering in the desert. So why would they attack us then, with nothing to gain? But they are just suicide bombers, kamikaze pilots trying to destroy all the holiness in the world. So now I want to propose a question and think together.

What makes a Mollek so unique, so different, that we all need to come together and be commanded me to orisa to remember to blot them out. What makes them uniquely, evil over, let's say, the Egyptians that enslaved us, kept us in bondage for hundreds of years? What makes a Mollek worse than Amon and Moab? What makes a Mollek completely intolerable? The Jewish people have had many enemies throughout the generations, but yet a Mollek is just a different league.

What's at the root of this? And there are many approaches and I'd like to share one. This is based on the wisdom of Rebello Barg Fingal, one of the great mirror. Magi De Shiorim, one of the great lecturers in Yashiva's mirror. When you examine the story of what I'm all like did, if you listen to the Balcore this Shabbos, you will hear the following words Asher Karechah Baderech, that they happened upon you on the way. Rashi jumps to our assistants to explain. What does it mean, asher Karechah Baderech, that they happened upon us on the way? Micra is a mashup of two words. Lashon Karevichom they cooled the hath. Shahayu Ha'umos Yureim lehi lachim bochem uba vzeh vehizchir vehera makayim leachirim Shahayu Ha'umos Yureim.

All of the nations of the world were enamored by Klaal Yusr'al at that moment. We had just walked through splitting water and been saved miraculously. Nobody wanted to pick up arms and fight with us, obozzeh, but Amalek didn't care and they nevertheless came, the Hischel and the began the Herum, Mokimlach Herum, and they showed an opening and they showed the rest of the world. Hey, don't worry, these people aren't so great. They were Mechalkel Harabim. They took away all of the splendor and grace, all of the untouchableness, like suicide bombers with nothing to gain, like a person jumping into a scalding bath that only cools it off for everybody else, even though he gets scalded and even though when he's a suicide bomber he's the one that's gonna die and he doesn't gain anything. Yet All he does is destroy them so that the rest of the world doesn't look up to Klaul Yisrael, klaul Harabim. Now everyone else won't look at Klaul Yisrael in the same special way. Starting up with the Jewish people waging war against us, that's nothing new. But at the time and at the place to destroy our untouchableness, the public perspective on the Jewish people, that's what makes them so wretched.

You find this idea throughout much of Torah literature very frequently, that when things are amplified to the rabim, to the tzibor, to the public, to the community at large, the stakes become much higher. The Ramba Men, saffer, Hamada, perak, gimel, chapter 3, halach Vav Ve'elu Hain, she'en lahem, chelik le'olum habah. There are some individuals that, god forbid, are locked out of the next world, who do not have a portion in the afterlife, and one of them is Umach Tee'eh Harabim. Those that cause the community, that cause others that cause the rabim to sin, pushing people off of the path of Torah and Mitzvahs, bringing people towards sin is one of the worst things that a person can do. And when it comes to Sanhedrin, to the laws of the judicial branch, to the judicial court case sides of things we always search. Even after the gavel has been slammed down and now there has been a verdict, we still go back and search for an acquittal. We search to try to help the litigant, to give them the way out from having to get punished. But when it comes to Umach Tee'eh Harabim, when it comes to grabbing others and pushing them towards sin, we don't do so. The laws are much more strict.

The exemplar of this attribute of Kil'Kul Harabim, the spit's example of bringing others down and wrecking the world, is Amalik. Perhaps now we have answered at least a little bit for why Amalik is intolerable. All of this brings to light a remarkable hiddish, a brand new, novel idea. If we flip this idea on its head, we see something extraordinary, if we can find someone or some nation or something that is the opposite of a Kil'Kul Harabim. But they actually are out for the betterment of society, they are out for social welfare. Well, there might not be anything greater than that. In truth, the Ten Commandments tells us that God actually recalls the sins of the parents upon the kids, up to three or four generations later, however, the next pasuk tells us Hashem shows kindness for thousands of generations to those who love me and observe my commandments. So Rashi does the math for us, that Nim says it comes out Mide yisera, al mide parenis, that good, that the reward for good outweighs that of bad. Achas alchameis meios 500 times shizula arba dairais vizula al afim. And this is all based on the khachma of Rav Yeruchim Levavot that this is a limut gadololom.

Imagine what it would look like if you were the opposite, if you strove to be the opposite of Amalek, if you were not a kilkul harabim but you were a mezakkas harabim. You were pushing the multitudes to the path of Torah, to the path of mitzvos, to the path of proper, upright moral conduct. Just imagine Shol actually lost. He squandered his mauchas, his kingdom, because he left one Amalek person and the animals that he didn't destroy he brought as sacrifices. Because of that, with all the right intentions, he lost his mauchas because the evil could not be tolerated. What if we could flip that on its head. What if you didn't stop trying to inspire and motivate? What if you were on every corner handing out spiritual food stamps? What if you were the exact opposite of Amalek?

This Shabbos we're going to read parashazukhar. We're going to take up arms in our milchamashel mitzvah to eradicate evil from the world. We're going to remember to blot out Amalek's, even a zachar of them. And we also see from there that if you can be the opposite of Amalek, imagine what you can't accomplish. Imagine the reward. Imagine how beloved it is in the eyes of HaKadash Baruch and the eyes of Hashem. It's hard to imagine anything more wretched, sinister and diabolical than Amalek, their future descendants, their principles and their motives. Yet we are discovering here today that Mide Yisera al Mide Peronius achasachal mehshmei, that good outweighs bad by 500 times.

Imagine what it would be like to start spreading the light of Torah, to go out there and build something that represents HaKadash Baruch. Imagine what it would look like when you start a chesed organization. Imagine what it would look like when you tap your friend on the shoulder and ask him if he wants to learn with you. Imagine what it would mean to HaKadash Baruch when you start to help out his children. Be rabim. Imagine the reward, imagine the benefit, imagine how beloved it would be in the eyes of Hashem. Imagine becoming the opposite of Amalek, a global source for good. It's hard to think of anything that is greater than to be mizakhe the rabim. Imagine becoming the opposite of Amalek.