Religion & Ethics Dr. Tzvika Kanarek

Religion & Ethics Dr. TzvikaKanarek

Lesson 6 Last week, we discussed the ethical issue of “annihilation of the Amalekite tribe” and we will continue this week as well. We mentioned that only the Divine can command us to destroy Amalekites, if morality is the command of God, He knows what is benefiting for mankind, and or what is righteous for His world. We mentioned, that possibly Amalek is no specific tribe, there is an “Amalek” in every generation and the Israelites are commanded to remember and to destroy in order to protect themselves before they are destroyed. God will annihilate every nation that tries to destroy the Jewish nation.

One of the major difficulties in understanding in depth the bible is the fact that the children start at an early age. They start at kindergarten and first grade. It is learned in a superficial form and later it is difficult for the individual to release himself from these beliefs. The religious child goes with his father to synagogue the Sabbath before Purim to hear Parshat Zachor (Deuteronomy Chapt.25, 17 – 19), What does he learn when he sees this ceremony? What does he grasp when he hears the Haftara of that week (Samuel 1 Chapter 15)? He is taught that that this command to eliminate Amalak has major importance in his belief and religion (woman and children specially come to hear this reading). These views stay with these children throughout their lifetime.

Rabenu Bahya, (late 13th century) who wrote the “Obligations of the Heart”–“it is appropriate to start studying the book of God and the books of the Prophets at an appropriate age. Your mind shall not rest on what has been learned in the beginning of you studies. Relearn it as you have never seen it, only then you will be able to understand the hidden facts of the bible and the sages. Those factors and apprehensions would have been impossible to comprehend at an early age. To be able to fully understand the deep meaning of “Parshat Zachor, it should be taught at an appropriate age, so that the child will not internalize racial views.

The Chapter (Deuteronomy Chapt.25, 19) dealing with Amalek, ends with the command, “Lo tishkah!” Do not forget! What should we remember and never forget? What Amalek did to the children of Israel when they left Egypt, preying on the weak and helpless stragglers in an unprovoked attack. This was totally amoral and despicable and only could be understood because, as the bible says, “they did not know God.” That is, they didn’t even have the basic feelings of humanity required of all humans. Who were these Amalekites that we are commanded to annihilate them throughout time? They apparently were a nomadic group living in the Sinai Desert and the part of the Negev that was south of the territory of Judah, just south of Beer-Sheba. Amalek, the leader, is thought to be the grandson of Esau.

There are many parallels to the call for remembrance that we see throughout history. Texans say, “Remember the Alamo.” The Jewish people remember the Six Million Jews murdered during the holocaust.All of these represent types of defeat, and we remember them so that we work to prevent their repetition and remember the heroism that accompanied these events. On the other hand, the Bosnian and Serbs, Turks and Armenians, etc. remember their history so that revenge remains constant in their minds. Is this what we want for Amalek? Should we be seeking out descendants of Amalek so that we can destroy them? How long should the Jewish people insist on remembering their enemies?

The time had come, as God suggested in the chapter we mentioned (Deuteronomy Chapt.25, 19), “when the Lord your God grants you safety from all your enemies...” to finally deal with Amalek. Saul is commanded to wipe out the entire Amalekite nation including the children and animals even though hundreds of years had passed since the original Amalekites had preyed so viciously on the wandering Israelites. That Saul chose not to complete the task as he was commanded, sparing Agag and some animals, and was punished for it, adds to the moral dilemma we have with the idea of revenge and war without mercy.

Someday, God willing hopefully soon, the present enemies of the Jewish people will no longer be enemies just as Germans and Japanese are no longer enemies of the United States. France and Germany, and England and France, were “traditional enemies” at one time but now are allies.As circumstances change, peoples attitude change, but most important, we should not hold subsequent generations or an entire nation responsible for past atrocities. Today, most would agree that we must remember the circumstances that brought about the tragic wars they started so that we can prevent similar occurrences, but not hold descendants of their leaders to account.

Nachama Leibowitz (Studies in Devarim, p. 253) generalizes Amalek into a representative of unrestrained evil in the world. Nachamasays, “Amalek,” against whom the Divine declares eternal war, is not an ethic or racial group or concept, but is the archetype of the wanton aggressor who smites the weak and defenceless in every generation.” In other words, remember that evil people, like Amalek, exist. Don’t shirk from dealing with them.But blot out their names, not their people from the earth.In lesson 5 we said; “blot out the people of Amalek” of your generation before he destroy you, now we are saying blot out their names (Like some of the Jewish people would always add to name Nazis –“yemach shemom”– blot out their name). Blot out this philosophy of attacking the weak and the different. We can now understand the contradictory commands in this passage, “to blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heaven” even when we are instructed to “Remember what Amalek did to you...”How can you do both? (as asked in lesson 5)

Educators should reject the equation of Amalek with any contemporary people, we are compelled to reinterpret the troubling commandment for perpetual war against Amalek in such a way as to preclude using the text to incite violence. We can begin by noticing the dichotomy between the command to attack Amalek and the story of the exodus from Egypt, the context in which this command first appears (Exodus 17:8-13). The primary lesson of the exodus from Egypt is that human beings have inherent dignity and therefore should not be enslaved. In contrast, the commandment to fight Amalek and his descendents suggests that certain people, by dint of their ancestry, are not even worthy of life.

By defining the war against Amalek as an inward struggle, we simultaneously rid ourselves of the dangers associated with identifying particular individuals as Amalek and reconcile the seemingly opposite poles of the exodus from Egypt and war against Amalek, the obligatory war against Amalek. As long as war against Amalek remains a war against a specific people, we cannot respond fully to the call for human dignity that is the foundation the exodus narrative. When we define the fight against Amalek as an inward struggle, we redefine it as part of the exodus from Egypt , and not in opposition to the exodus from Egypt.

'Do not forget' - Do not forget this thing if the day comes and you will want to become like Amalek, and, like Amalek, you fail to recognize your obligation and do not know God. Rather, you only seek opportunities, in matters small or great, to exploit your advantage in order to harm your fellow men. Do not forget this if the day comes and you ask to relieve your heart of its role and its mission as Israel that you have taken upon yourself amongst humanity. Do not envy the laurels which a foolish world throws to those happy with having destroyed the happiness of others. Remember the tear-soaked soil which nurtures the laurels of those wreathes, do not forget this thing when the day comes and you yourself suffer Amalek's violence and coarseness. Keep standing straight! Preserve the humanity and values of justice that you learned from your God. The future belongs to them, and in the end humanity and justice will overcome coarseness and violence.

You yourself were sent in order to announce and to bring near - with your very example - that overcoming and that future. Do not forget - and in order that you not forget, remember from time to time, renew in your heart the memory of Amalek and what you have been told of its future. (From Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch's commentary on Deuteronomy 25:19)

Perhaps in response to this ideological inconsistency, some Jewish sources, particularly mystical and chasidic texts, read the fight against Amalek as a metaphor for a fight against inner evils. One passage in the Zohar, the central text of Jewish mysticism, understands Amalek as the "grave evil" that leads to dissatisfaction with one's lot. Similarly, a number of chasidic writers interpret Amalek as the yetzer hara --- the evil instinct within each of us.

We will bring another view: In the context of the current conflict, we might define the fight against Amalek as our internal Jewish fight against justifying the oppression of another people, and as our attempt to guarantee that this people may live in dignity. And he said: 'The hand upon the throne of the” LORD:(Exodus – Chapter 17, 16) According to the midrash, “God's throne remains incomplete until Amalek is destroyed” (P'sikta Rabati 12)”. In overcoming Amalek and restoring dignity to all people, we can transform Israel --- and eventually, the world --- into a place in which the divine presence is fully manifest. As an educator this view can be taught, but in my humble opinion this not the “peshat” - simple and plain meaning of the chapter. We will try another teaching that we are able to derive from this chapter of Amalek which is also definitely not the “peshat”.

What did Amalek do? The bible tells us that he attacked the stragglers, those who had fallen outside the camp. But the very notion of stragglers should give us pause. As the bible describes it, the Israelite community on the march was much like an army, with every tribe in its place, every clan intact. Who was there to be left behind? Surely even the old and weak had families to look after them. Amalek's victims, then, must have been those who were not only weary, but who were allowed to fall behind.

Is it hard to imagine that God's own chosen would let some fall by the wayside? It shouldn't be. For while in our stories we tend to romanticize the poor and the sick many of the weakest in our society are unattractive. They are the people we hope will not sit next to us on the subway, the people whose neighborhoods we avoid. They are hicks and drukards; racists, misogynists, and individuals with primitive ideas. Filthy and dangerous, or just weird and unpleasant, we don't actively persecute them, but neither are they foremost in our hearts and minds.

This does not make us wicked; it is part of being human. We are limited beings and our capacity for compassion is likewise limited. Our areas of concern are a series of concentric circles, sometimes ill-defined, sometimes porous, but they are there. Jewish tradition acknowledges this, even mandates it. We are obligated to see to the needs of those closest to us first as said in the Talmud “give charity, fist to the poor from your own town” (baba matzia 71a). True, there are cases in which a needy person may be so pressing that it compels attention and jumps to the head of the line, so to speak, but generally the Torah is content to assume that everyone falls within someone's inner circle. It is those who do not, the "widow, orphan, and stranger", that the text commends to our particular and communal care.

As well it should, because we see in our own world what happens to those on the outskirts of our concern: they die (Sudan today). Their nutrition is worse, their shelter is worse, their medical care is worse and comes later. Having the least to spare they are more subject to violence, robbery, rape, and fraud. Whether it is defined by "lifestyle" or skin color or status or general attractiveness, those at the margins are at the greatest risk. And though surely death comes to us all, it is equally sure that death comes most aggressively to those who have none to look after them. For Amalek waits to strike at those who fall behind.

The bible tells us all we need to know. Amalek is the enemy that preys on those who are left behind. And Amalek must always be remembered because Amalek cannot be killed, not by the sword, at any rate, for Amalek is called into existence by his prey. For Amalek to be defeated, he must be starved. It is this aspect of the enemy which drives the almost desperate anxiety of our passage. Amalek will spring up wherever there are holes in the safety net, whenever our guard is down. If we forget to watch out, if we forget to take care, if we forget that everyone in the society must be cared for, there will be an enemy waiting for them in the wilderness. Amalek will only be fully vanquished and his name blotted out when he becomes unimaginable; that is, when the very idea of stragglers will be as foreign to us.

One last thing: our reading is not just a reminder, not just a warning. It is a command. The war against Amalek, victory over Amalek, is now our responsibility. If Amalek survives, it is because we allow it. If he takes victims, it is because we have failed. And when people die who didn't have to because they were behind us, because they were beneath us, that blood is on our hands. Out here in the desert there is no other way. In summary, we shall destroy any Amaleki feelings and activity that can cause weakness and stragglers in our society or in the world that became just a small village.

Written and Reading Assignment • What are the deficiencies of the views we mentioned in lessons 5 – 6? • Which theory or approach that we mentioned would you apply in your classroom? Do you have another approach that we did not mention in our lessons?

Religion & Ethics Dr. Tzvika Kanarek