The New Amalekites

What is on my mind is a comment I just read in a post to a friend regarding our situation vis a vis Hamas in Gaza and who we these "Falestinians" that we are fighting with really are.

Just who are these "Amalekites" we face today?

The Amalekites were a source of constant woe to Israel ever since we escaped Egypt and entered Sinai on our quest to reach our "Promised Land". The Babylonians had a bad opinion of them, calling them “Khabbati,” or “plunderers.” The Amalekites and Canaanites, among other nations, practiced child burning, torture as public entertainment, and sexual immorality as sport.

In noting this opinion of Amalekites by the Babylonians I wonder just how many remember how hard the Falestinians attempted to rewrite history to the world to usurp us Jews as the inheritors and indigenous people by declaring themselves to be descendants of the Canaanites?

According to the rabbinical sources Amalek was an atheist who had a vested interest in being the very first leader of a people to attack the Monotheistic Jewish people, whose very existence proved the existence of God to the world. "Amalek is a scoffer who believes in nothing."

The actions of the anti-Semites today are reflected in Amalek and his need to attack Jews, because to him we represented to the world the twin ideas of God's existence and absolute morality.

* This part is for ALL our fellow Jews in the diaspora especially those of the JVP "Bend the Arc" fame to note.

The battle against Amalek has always been a battle over whether Man will obey God or the dictates of his own rationale. Man expresses his freewill by deciding to act either according to his own definitions of right and wrong, which devolve to his own "might and power," or according to God's definition of morality.
As long as the Jews were diligent in Torah study, Amalek had no dominion over them. But as soon as Jewish study became lax, - "Amalek battled Israel in (a place called) Rephidim"(located in Sinai) (Exodus 17:8)- Rephidim" is a contraction of Hebrew words meaning "they loosened their grip on Torah", and because of this lack of knowledge in our Judaism we Jews are in danger.

Through the ages the Jewish people have gone directly against God's order to completely wipe out every man, woman, and child of the "Amalekites".

And we have done so in a clear uneasiness with this commandment and because of this "Uneasiness" caused by our morality we couldn't and wouldn't do it and because we disobeyed God, we are plagued to always have to deal with an "eternally irreconcilable enemy" represented as "Amalek".

Rabbi Ya’akov Hayyim Sofer (Baghdad and Jerusalem, 1867-1939) also felt an "Uneasiness" with one of the commandments regarding Amalek.

In Kaf Hahayyim to Orah Hayyim 685 (par. 29) he asks:

"Why we don’t recite a blessing before we read Parashat Zakhor on the Shabbat before Purim?"

He replies:

“Because we do not bless regarding destruction, even the destruction of non-Jews, as we see that God said [to the angels after the Egyptians drowned in the Sea of Reeds]: ‘my handiwork is drowning in the sea and you are singing?!’ (Megillah 10b)”.

We cannot bring ourselves to completely annihilate a whole people in a genocide because we view the innocent among them as God's creations.

This higher morality of ours is lost among those who hate us and paint us with the word "Genocide" knowing full well that they are spreading a lie.

Our consciences and our deep morality haven't allowed us to act in such a heinous manner as our most hated enemies.

Our acts as a people are acts of compassion and humility before God. This is openly seen by our IDF worldwide rescue and medical assistance disaster teams. It can be seen in our caring for our wounded enemies and even the children and wives of their despotic leaders in our hospitals.

We spend millions building defenses and bomb shelters even in the Arab communities even though we face worldwide condemnation as an "Apartheid nation".

We have and will continue to spend millions on inventing defensive technology so that our civilian population can attempt to live normally, day to day lives as much as possible in the overwhelming tragic shadow of hatred and constant violence. Even if it means that we force our own families to live under a constant rain of mortar and rocket-fire. We will not shed our humanity to bring INTENTIONAL death on innocents. This can be readily seen in our dropping of leaflets to the innocent people of Gaza used as human shields and the act of the "knock on the roof" on the building to be destroyed as a means of warning to the innocent.
Israeli forces use as many "non-lethal" means as they can to quell violent demonstrations on the border with Gaza as well as in Judaea and Shomron.

Hopefully they will eventually learn humanity from us and we will have real peace, but until then, this the price we pay as a moralistic people.